Results: Clicking 'Like' On Facebook Can Actually Help Scammers

It's an image that tugs at our heartstrings--a beautiful 7 year old girl in her cheerleader outfit, head shaved indicating chemotherapy treatments for cancer, imploring you to click 'Like' to show her you care, or type 'Amen' to pray for her, or 'Share' to send her some love. I saw this recently on Facebook, but I did none of these things. The reason: this photo is actually almost 9 years old, and neither the parents nor the little girl ever gave permission for anyone to use this photo, and did not even know it was being used this way. Welcome to the world of 'Facebook farming', Facebook pages created with the sole purpose of spreading viral content that will get lots of likes and shares. Once the page creators have piled up hundreds of thousands of likes and shares, they'll strip the page and promote something else, like products that they get a commission for selling. Or, they may turn around and sell the page through black-market websites to someone who does the same. So, not only does it do nothing for the subject of the photo, it actually lines the pockets of the ones who steal the photo. Have you ever done one of these "Like', 'Type Amen' or 'Share' postings?

It can actually get much worse. Not only can someone profit from your seemingly harmless 'Click', they can also use your Facebook profile information to get valuable information about you, and your Facebook friends. Personal information like gender, location and age can be used to target more personalized attacks. So a dog lover will all of a sudden find their page flooded with adorable puppies to 'Like' or horrible stories of animal abuse to 'Pray Amen' for. If you have clicked on these posts in the past, will this information now cause you to reconsider and stop doing this?

Just for your information, the little girl in the picture above is now a 15 year old teenager, who shows no sign of cancer since she was 7. Her mother is angered that these photos still pop up on Facebook to this day, even after contacting Facebook to investigate (which they did and deleted the accounts), and even popping up on Pinterest and another site linking it to a Jackie Chan story. Have you ever clicked on this particular photo shown in question 1?

Internet scams come in all shapes, sizes and degrees. Some are obvious -- distant friend or family member contacts you after years asking for money since they are stranded or robbed in England, and some are subtle. To protect yourself there are some things you should do. How many of these things are you aware of?