Well, the scammers and hoaxsters never seem to take a break from Facebook and it’s companion Messenger app. It seems like a new one starts making the rounds virtually every day.
The latest hoax to come to my attention is being spread primarily by Messenger.
The text of the hoax messages vary, but they usually read something like this:
“This message is to inform all our users, that our servers have been very busy lately, so we ask you to help you solve this problem. We ask active users to forward this message to everyone in your contact list to confirm active Facebook users if you do not send this message to all of your Facebook contacts, and your account will remain inactive with the result of losing all your cont Move this message. Your smartphone will be updated within the next 24 hours, and will have a new design and a new color for chat. Dear Facebook users, we will update to Facebook from 23:00 pm. Until 5:00 am on this day. If you do not send this to all your contacts the update will be canceled and you will not have the possibility to chat with your Facebook messages”
There are several tip-offs that this is a hoax, and they’re very easy to recognize:
1 – You’re told to send the message to all of your Facebook contacts.
Truth be told, you could have stopped reading right there because ANY message that tells you to forward it to all of your contacts is a hoax. Every last one of them.
2 – The grammar and punctuation in the message is…well, horrible.
Neither Facebook nor any other legitimate company would put out an official message without making sure it was grammatically correct and properly punctuated.
3 – The supposed reason for sending the message is a problem with their servers being over-worked, and they’re asking you to help solve that problem.
But asking you to forward the message to all your contacts would only make the problem worse by placing an even larger load on their servers.
That’s sort of like asking you to help preserve a failing bridge by telling all of your friends to park their cars on it.
Bottom line: These Facebook Messenger hoaxes are being spread like never before, but simply thinking about what the message is actually saying can help you quickly recognize them as hoaxes and avoid falling for them.
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