“OMG You Can See Who Is Viewing Your Profile” SCAM links spreading
Links are being posted from people’s Facebook accounts claiming that you can see who is viewing your Facebook profile.
The links implore readers to click it using messages like the ones below –
OMG Now you can see who is viewing your profile. My total number of todays profile views are 9 . My ex is still stalking my profile 6 times a day . Click the link to see who is viewing your profile. ==>>
or
Amazing, I just checked my pr0file had 8 views last hour and 81 views in last week. LOL, check out how many views your pr0file got and wh0 stalks your pr0file at
Despite the claims made by these links, they are fake. Claims that you can see who is viewing or “stalking” your Facebook profile have long been used as bait to lure Facebook user’s into completing any number of undesirable tasks that will often put their computer security at risk.
In this case, the links are leading to a rogue Facebook app (called either “profile stats” or “socialbakers” but others exist) that – upon installation – both posts the same links from your account, as well as forwards you to spammy marketing webpages that assert that you need to complete lots of spam questionnaires in order to see who is viewing your profile.
However these questionnaires will harvest your personal information, which inevitably leads to you being a target for all types of spam and unsolicited communication.
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And of course, like we’ve said several times before on this site, you just can’t see who views your profile! Facebook apps simply don’t have access to that kind of information, nor does anyone else. Apps can, for example, count the number of times you’ve interacted with other people – such as commenting on their posts or tagging them in content – but this does not include profile views.
So for those with a tendency to fall for such schemes, please stop blindly following links that claim you can see who views your Facebook profile. In doing so, you put both your online security and privacy at risk.
If you’ve fallen for it…
If you’ve installed the app and given it permission to post from your account (resulting in you posting the same spammy links) then you need to do two things –
1. Delete the App. Go in your setting, click Apps and locate the “profile stats” (it may have a different name depending on the time you install it.) and remove it.
2. Remove any posts it made from your account so your friends don’t see them and fall for the same scam.