Facebook Has Rolled Out A New Feature To Protect You From Scam

Facebook has been rolling out new tools to help protect users’ privacy and maybe restore some sanity on its site. The latest, is a new tool that lets you know when someone is trying to scam you.

There is a growing trend in phishing sites that disguise as Facebook to retrieve information from users. They send mails to their victims, pretending to be from Facebook and the unsuspecting users comply by providing their login details and password information. The social media site announced a security tool that gives you access to authentic emails sent by the team.

Most of these clones basically look like the original, much that you may hardly note a difference. The only difference is the URL. However, the new security feature will identify an illegitimate message even if the address appears to be from Facebook. If the cloned email isn’t listed in the new tool or feature, then, it’s a scam.

If you have received any message you think is fraudulent, you should report such to phish@fb.com . Many companies and individuals have lost a fortune to phishing sites and in fact, security firm, Trend Micro forecasts that the losses will exceed $9b next year.

More than ever, Facebook is doing everything to delight its users and make the platform an enjoyable one. Earlier this week, it revealed its intention to demote posts fishing for likes, shares and comments. The aim of this is to minimise spam and maybe create an aura for an improved user experience, or, probably, to wade off competitors?

Another tactic is find quite suspicious is third party sites requesting for you to login to your Facebook account to help predict a future or see your inner strength.   A typical example will look like ‘How will you end the year 2017?’. The site will typically lead to a third party site that requests that you login with your Facebook details to see your ‘result’ and afterwards share on your timeline for your friends to see. While many users get excited about the marvellous results, this could be considered as spam or even a fraud. It’s simply another tactic to campaign for likes and shares or increase ‘engagement baits’.

Whatever the reason, to wade off competitors or to improve experience, I believe that this move is a great one from the Facebook team.