File photo. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic)

File photograph. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic) (Dado Ruvic / Reuters,Fotoware/ColorFactory)

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Facebook has changed the manner people practise a lot of things online. For example, you probably notice yourself reflexively clicking "like" on annihilation your friends post on Facebook, even if it's but to acknowledge you saw it. Scammers are taking advantage of that reflex for a dangerous scam called "like-farming."

What is like-farming?

Like-farming is when scammers mail an attention-grabbing story on Facebook for the express purpose of cultivating likes and shares. Based on the way Facebook works, the more likes and shares a post has, the more likely it is to testify up in people's News Feeds.

Like farming works because the average Facebook user doesn't know whatsoever improve. They think, "What does information technology injure to just like something?" But, it can hurt you personally, and others. These posts and pages are often used to spread malware, or as a phishing scam to collect your personal information. That information is and then used for further scams and can be
sold on the black market. It'due south a way for scammers to piece of work around Facebook's algorithm, and put malicious lawmaking in front of more people.

This gives the scammer more than eyeballs for posts that send people to malicious downloads or fox them into providing information. The big question, of form, is why Facebook doesn't terminate these posts before they get too big. And that's where the real scam comes in.

How the scam works

Scammers have institute a simple fashion to wing under the radar during the early on phases of their operation. The story they originally post to Facebook has nothing dangerous about it. Information technology's just a regular story that anyone might post.

Merely after the mail service gets a sure number of likes and shares does the scammer edit it and add something malicious. In fact, if you go dorsum through your history of liked posts, you might find that some of them have changed to something you lot wouldn't have liked in a million years. By the way, if y'all're not sure how to review your likes, click here for the pace-by-step instructions.

So, what kinds of stories practise scammers kickoff with to trick people into liking and sharing?

Posts that should give y'all break

One popular blazon of story is the emotional one. You've definitely seen the posts that evidence rescue animals and ask yous to like if you lot recall they're beautiful. Or maybe it'south a medical story where you're asked to like that the person was cured or to allow them know they're nonetheless beautiful subsequently surgery.

There are too the posts that ask for a like to show that you're confronting something the government is doing, or that you lot disagree with something terrible happening in the world. Or possibly it'southward the ones that say "If I go X number of likes, and so something amazing will happen for me" or "I was challenged to get 10 number of likes."

Basically, whatsoever post that asks you to similar it for emotional reasons, unless you lot know the person who created the original post, is quite probably a similar-farming mail service.

Other types of scam posts to avoid

Emotional posts aren't the merely ones you demand to picket for. There are a lot of scams on Facebook, and nigh of them can exist used for like-farming. A pop one, for example, asks you lot to like or share and so you can win something cool. These pop up near often when Apple tree launches a new iPhone or iPad.

You might accept seen people posting on Facebook during the contempo Powerball frenzy that anyone who liked their post would get a share of their winnings. How real do you think those were?

What most brain-teaser posts, such as the ones that have you like or share if you can read the words backwards or solve a tricky math problem? Yep, those are ofttimes like-farming posts, also.

And it isn't simply posts; it can as well be pages. A scammer might fix a folio for "I love puppies" or what appears to be a worthy company or organization. Information technology puts up enough content to become a lot of likes, and then switches the content to spam and scams. Once you've liked the page, everything new the scammers put upwardly goes on your News Feed – and in some cases your friends' feeds too.

How to avoid like-farming

Your best bet to avoid like-farming is to be very judicious about what yous similar and share on Facebook. Don't just reflexively click "similar" on everything. Have a look at where the post is coming from. If it's from someone you don't recognize, information technology could be a friend of a friend or it could exist a complete stranger. It would be skilful to find out.

Discover the content and whether it promises anything for liking or sharing. If it does, it's a good clue that it's a scam of some kind. The same goes if you experience pushed or pressured into clicking like or share. Click here for v Facebook scams that continue to spread similar wildfire.

Don't forget that, in the cease, minimizing your likes is more than only a skilful security mensurate. Information technology likewise reduces the clutter in your friends' news feeds, and their ataxia in yours, so you can all spend more time seeing the actually important posts. That's a win-win for everyone.

Want another way to reduce clutter in your news feed? Follow these elementary steps to see just what you want.

And since we're talking about likes, practice you know how the 2016 election would plow out if Facebook likes were votes? You lot
can find out the surprising, or not-so-surprising, answer correct here.

Finally, there is one like button you should press to get news and updates to stay ahead of the game in your digital life. Head over to my Facebook folio and like me at Facebook.com/KimKomando.

On the Kim Komando Show, the nation'due south largest weekend radio talk prove, Kim takes calls and dispenses communication on today'southward digital lifestyle, from smartphones and tablets to online privacy and data hacks. For her daily tips, free newsletters and more than, visit her website at Komando.com. Kim also posts breaking tech news 24/7 at News.Komando.com.