As you probably already know, scams and hoaxes abound on Facebook.
Luckily, many of those scams and the vast majority of the hoaxes are relatively benign other than the irritation they cause, but some of them are actually quite dangerous.
One of the most dangerous scams ever to hit Facebook is rearing its ugly head once again.
It’s called the “Malicious Tagging” scam and it typically works something like this…
You and a bunch of your friends are tagged in a post that appears to have been posted by one of your mutual friends.
Sometimes the post will include some surrounding text, but many of them consist of nothing but either a video or a link to a video.
It’s very tempting to want to watch that video or click on that link because it was apparently posted by your friend, and several of your other friends are tagged in the post along with you.
But there’s danger in that click…
If you click to watch the video you’ll be prompted to download a “flash player update”.
And since we’re all used to downloading updates on a regular basis you might be tempted to go ahead and click the link to install the update. Don’t do it!
The problem is the file you’ll be downloading is actually a malicious app. In fact, there will be no more updates to Flash, ever.
Once the app is downloaded and installed it will immediately start scanning your device for financial information and other sensitive info that the scammer can use to clean out your bank account and/or max out your credit card(s)!
What’s more, the malicious app will also use your Facebook account to send the same scam post to a bunch of YOUR friends’ newsfeeds and make it appear that YOU published the malicious post.
As you can see, this is one of the most dangerous scams ever to hit the Facebook community.
If you see that you’re tagged in a post along with several of your friends, DO NOT attempt to watch the video or click on the link!
What you need to do instead is delete the malicious post and then message the friend that posted it and let them know what’s going on.
Bottom line: It’s always wise to be extremely careful about the things you click on while you’re using Facebook because clicking on a malicious link can cause all kinds of serious problems, both for you and for your friends.
And that goes double for these dangerous “Malicious Tagging” scam posts!