Facebook is home to more than a billion daily users, businesses, pages and unfortunately, viruses and scams.
Popular social media networks are the perfect place for malware distribution and all sorts of scams that trick you into giving your money, personal information and data.
When browsing Facebook, users are likely to experience online threats such as the OMG Facebook virus, so keep these tips in mind in order to avoid them.
Learn How To Identify A Facebook Scam
Malware on Facebook often comes in a clickbait form, i.e., a giveaway that attracts attention or an outrageous headline. The first sign that it could be a potential malware is when it’s almost too good to be true.
A Facebook account can be taken over and messages that come from the profile can be sent to his or her friends. Some of the most obvious malware attacks include the following:
– Promotions, messages or posts from friends that don’t seem to come from them.
– A message that contains a video and uses the starting phrase, “hey. is this you?”, followed by an unfamiliar external link.
– A Facebook friend approaches you and starts promoting a product or a service.
To stay safe, don’t click on any links immediately. Avoid accepting Friend Requests from people you don’t know.
Review Your Authorized Apps
You’ll need to regularly review and see if all the apps that has access to your FB account are safe. For instance, the OMG Facebook virus starts out as a Facebook game but turns into a malicious platform once it acquires your confidential information. Worse, it sends out trojan messages to all the user’s friends for further infection.
Check your Applications and see if your authorizations are correct. Click the pencil icon to review the app’s current permission settings.
Take Steps To Secure Your Account
Turn on Login Alerts so you’ll know when someone has logged in to your Facebook account on an unknown device.
Browse through Recognized Devices and scan for any strange ones that you may have missed.
Lastly, enable Two-Factor Authentication to make it harder for hackers to access your account.