back to article Friends fooled by Facebook Timeline 'removal tool' scams

Two separate "Timeline-removing" spam scams are doing the rounds on Facebook, security watchers warn. Both ruses feature dodgy messages targeting users of the social network who happen to dislike the recently introduced feature, and are looking for a way to go back to the "old look". In the first case, users who take the bait …

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  1. Tzael

    What timeline?

    I've not seen Facebook's timeline feature in months, bliss!

    Then again I've not used Facebook in months, not easy when most friends insist on running their social lives through the site. Facebook: encouraging seclusion and loneliness in the masses since 2004!

    1. I think so I am?
      Pint

      Re: What timeline?

      "not easy when most friends insist on running their social lives through the site"

      This is the only reason I still have it - It now seems that the unthinkable act of a phone call to ask if you would like to go out has become a sacrilegious act.

      I would search for new friends, but I've invested too much time in them to just throw them away, but its getting close.

      1. Andus McCoatover
        Windows

        Re: What timeline?

        Whew! I must be old-fashioned. Time to retire my fountain pen and my Basildon Bond!

        Grief, every time I pass a public(ish) computer, Facebook's about the only page I see.

        We're losing the art of writing, now it seems talking's down the swanny. Dunno why, all my friends are with the same operator as me (Saunalahti), and a basic plan gives 300 minutes free, for €10/month 'intra-operator'. Sheesh!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Shows that you can sell anything to the gullible with the right kind of wording. This was proved with the Galaxy Note.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Facebook and idiots

    seem to go hand in hand it seems.

    This sums it up for me: http://goo.gl/2p4F3

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Facebook and idiots

      Yeah, like anyone is going to follow up a shortened link in a public forum without knowing where it leads.. No thanks..

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Facebook and idiots

        On b3ta it's popular to point them to I Love Horses.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Facebook and idiots

        "Yeah, like anyone is going to follow up a shortened link in a public forum without knowing where it leads.. No thanks.."

        The shortcut went to G+

        1. Swarthy
          Facepalm

          Re: Facebook and idiots

          Fortuitously there are unshorteners out there. link spy seems to be friendly enough.

          Or you can make use of El Reg's innovative feature of HTML links, these have the nifty ability to be as short as needed, and still displaying the full URL on mouse-over. What will the Reg hacks come up with next?

  3. the-it-slayer
    Facepalm

    Dear oh dear...

    How can the facebook generation be so desperate to remove a pointless feature from their profiles? Especially when they know changes are forced upon you on that money bloating machine that will explode some day in the next year.

    Anyway, who's sad enough to care about what their own profile looks like? Sheeeeeesh.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Dear oh dear...

      Well, me for one. I can't reliably find anything people post to me because of the new crap. What's worse is, it isn't consistent. Sometimes I get the old view I can navigate, others I get the crap where nothing makes sense. Of course, that could be because I use 3 FB accounts to play my Zynga games.

  4. TheKeffster
    Thumb Up

    Wait, wait, wait....this is a GOOD thing!

    If enough of the sheeple get burnt by this, Facebook may wake up and realize that actually, timeline is pretty pump and people hate it, so much so that even those who converted their profiles are even turning to malware in their desperation to get rid of it!

    Those of us that don't sit in the stupid category can only benefit from this!

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Facebook = New Microsoft

    Facebook are fast becoming the new Microsoft when it comes to security and lack of action. While Microsoft have improved their plugging of holes Facebook seems to have got worse.

    Several friends have been tagged in some view profile scam picture that gets generated and despite me and a few other people I know reporting them as spam and blocking them as far back as two weeks ago they still crop up even though I've asked to 'hide it' from my newsfeed.

    I know loads of people who have just grown tired of their constant changing of things for changes sake who have bit the bullet and moved to twitter and I think I'm going to join them....

    1. DrXym

      Re: Facebook = New Microsoft

      The problem here is that the Facebook user base is very large and contains a lot of computer illiterate people who have a poor concept of online security. It's not hard to see how somone could send out some trojan purporting to disable some unpopular feature and people would actually install it.

      I don't think you can blame Facebook for this since it's largely out of their control. They can attempt to monitor and block infected users but they can't someone from installing software from a third party site through a browser on their computer.

      1. Samurai Tony
        Joke

        Re: Facebook = New Microsoft

        >> The problem here is that the Microsoft user base is very large and contains a lot of computer illiterate people who have a poor concept of online security. It's not hard to see how somone could send out some trojan purporting to disable some unpopular feature and people would actually install it.

        >> I don't think you can blame Microsoft for this since it's largely out of their control. They can attempt to monitor and block infected users but they can't someone from installing software from a third party site through a browser on their computer.

        Wow, that actually worked....

        1. DrXym

          Re: Facebook = New Microsoft

          "Wow, that actually worked...."

          Er no it doesn't work unless you missed the rather massive point that Facebook is a website. It cannot control what you do on your own machine or outside of the browser or even inside a browser if its not pointing at their website. Facebook may be able to mop up spam messages and assist users in cleaning up the mess, or failing that suspending accounts but they can only react after the fact.

          This is in stark contrast to the situation with Microsoft where they made a number of very poor security decisions with Windows and software like MS Outlook, Internet Explorer which directly affected the operating system and everything running on top of it.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Facebook = New Microsoft

            "Facebook may be able to mop up spam messages and assist users in cleaning up the mess, or failing that suspending accounts but they can only react after the fact."

            They can't even mop up the spam these days it takes them months to deal with those posts that say you can see who has viewed your profile.

      2. Tom 13

        Re: I don't think you can blame Facebook

        Yes you can, and I do. The new look should have been opt in, not force fed. If they'd done that, there wouldn't be a problem.

        1. DrXym

          Re: I don't think you can blame Facebook

          "Yes you can, and I do. The new look should have been opt in, not force fed. If they'd done that, there wouldn't be a problem."

          The feature may have been unpopular but that doesn't mean their security or lack thereof is to blame with the subsequent trojan. If it hadn't used this as a ploy it would have used something else.

  6. Winkypop Silver badge
    Trollface

    That's quite amusing

    See title.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    sites or ads?

    Are these ads in fb?? Or are people so desperate they are googling 'facebook timeline remover' or something??

    1. Tom 13

      Re: sites or ads?

      Given some of the links I'm seeing posted by various "friends" probably both.

    2. Dog Faced Boy

      Re: sites or ads?

      It will more likely be a 3rd party app that you have to give permission to access your personal data (which also slurps friends data if they haven't set their security permissions correctly).

      The first person that accepts the app, then gives the app permission to make posts on their behalf which starts to send spam on all their friends walls, continuing the cycle.

  8. Graham Marsden
    Mushroom

    "Security is a top priority for Facebook..."

    But listening to what our users want isn't.

  9. Dog Faced Boy

    Facebook security a joke

    I hate Facebook, but run a community page so I have to maintain an account on the site.

    At least every second time I login into Facebook, I see obvious scam postings supposedly made by friends (ie they've accepted a dodgy app that posts on their behalf). I find my time is split equally on Facebook into managing the fan page, and telling friends they've falling for a scam.

    The worst thing, is that even though they listen and realise it is a scam, a couple of weeks later the same people for the latest scam app doing the rounds on Facebook.

    One friend had accepted an app which posted on their wall every hour or so, and on the walls of their friends. You couldn't delete the app from your profile and a few friends had fell for it. It took Facebook several months before they addressed the issue, even though it was reported to Fb repeatedly, provided screenshots of the app, providing technical details, etc. Facebook did not respond to anyone and allowed it too happen.

    I personally think they ignore all the scams, until a scam has reached a threshhold of complaints, it could be a 1000 complaints, 10,000, 100,000 etc. Who knows, Facebook will never tell.

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