A spam Facebook app has been circulating virally across Facebook asserting to tell you what your “mental age” is.
Many Facebook users who installed the app were, perhaps, expecting to take some kind of test to “expertly” determine their mental age. Essentially one of those jokey Facebook apps that are meant to be entertaining.
However we regularly warn our readers against these kinds of Facebook applications because the developers, unsurprisingly, don’t really care about working out your mental age. Their priority lies in making money at your expense.
Despite seeing a drop in users complaining about rogue Facebook apps, this mental age application has become extremely popular on Facebook. Users who install the application are first forced to give the application permission to access their personal information and post on their behalf, which is often the first warning sign that you’re installing a spam Facebook app.
After installing the application users are forwarded to a website that asks them to complete various survey and reward schemes, and therein lies the end game of the scam – the scammer gets paid every time they lure a user into completing a survey and parting with their personal information. Survey scams are a popular scam used on Facebook.
In the meantime the Facebook application that you installed is spamming your Facebook account with the below post, trying to get all your friends to install the same application.
Remember, don’t install Facebook apps that you do not trust, and another point worth highlighting is that you should always clean up after you fall for these kinds of scams. If you installed a rogue Facebook app then remove it! Otherwise it can continue to spam your friends indefinitely. To remove the App goes to the Apps section under your privacy settings.
(useful hint: the name of the application is published at the bottom of any posts it makes from your account)
Remember to remove spam posts from your account as well!!
Point of note: Rogue Facebook apps like this are a method of spreading spam and are NOT viruses.
