Facebook scams have been around since Facebook became viral. We have seen crooks trying and often succeeding in making people click on corrupted videos, images, and links. The latest Facebook scam, however, involves the much anticipated ‘dislike’ button. As you probably know, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared the network’s plan to include the new button in a Q&A. Even though the name of the button was not revealed then, cyber crooks have already figured out a way to make a scam out of it.
Image Source: https://m.snopes.com
What is Facebook Dislike Button Scam About? How Does It Work?
Shortly said, the scam prompts users to click on a link saying something like:
→‘Get newly introduced Facebook dislike button on your profile.’
The scam is displayed in the users’ newsfeeds and pretends to be invite-only. If the user is tricked into clicking, he will land on a fake page that is masqueraded as a Facebook website. The scamming website has instructions on how to share the page with other users by sending it to five groups. The implied method is nothing we haven’t seen before. Crooks typically seek the chance to multiply their scams the quickest way possible – through sharing it with Facebook groups.
Related: Facebook Virus Posting from My Profile
It is easy to assume that clicking on the links causes redirects to two pages that have nothing to do with Facebook or its ‘dislike’ button. Both of the destinations attempt to obtain information from users by making them sign up. If you land on such a page, you should navigate away from it as soon as possible. Then, scanning your system is usually required, because scamming websites can affect your system in multiple ways.
How Can I Stay Protected against Scamming Websites?
Scamming websites are all over the Internet. They seek to exploit uneducated users who are gullible and easily fall into frauds. By taking part in an online scam, you can be affected in various ways. This is a list of possible outcomes that may happen, if you have clicked on corrupted links/videos/some other media content:
- Your personal information can be harvested. Scamming websites typically urge users to share their banking credentials, email addresses, or other form of personally-identifiable information.
- Your browser’s settings can be altered and tracking technologies may be added to it. Once this is done, you may start witnessing intrusive ad-sponsored content in the form of pop-up and pop-down windows, in-text ads, banners, underlined hyperlinks, etc. In addition, random page texts can be turned into hyperlinks. If you interact with any of the displayed content, things can get much uglier.
- Your Windows Registry can be affected, as well as other system settings. Some scamming pages are employed to carry through drive-by downloads. Such downloads may be silent, which means that you won’t be notified of them. As a result, your system can be flooded with potentially unwanted software and even malware. Unwanted software can target the browser and act as a browser hijacker by changing the user’s home page, search page, error page, or new tab page without his consent. New entries can be added to the Registry, and others can be deleted. As a result, you may start having problems with your Internet Connection.
For instance, browser hijackers, such as Dnsioweb.net can act as a LSP browser hijacker. As a result, the traffic between the Internet and your applications can be intercepted, filtered and modified. For more information about LSP hijacking, check this topic on the MalwareBytes forum.
In Conclusion: Think About Your Online Safety
If you have encountered a scamming website, be it yet another Facebook Scam or a page promoting rogue software, you should consider running a powerful AV scanner. You can also enable your Windows Firewall, add an external one to increase your security level, and take care of your favorite browser by adding a plug-in to guard it from intruders (such as the browser extension designed by VirusTotal).
To check your system for unwanted software manually, don’t forget to check your system.
Spy Hunter scanner will only detect the threat. If you want the threat to be automatically removed, you need to purchase the full version of the anti-malware tool.Find Out More About SpyHunter Anti-Malware Tool / How to Uninstall SpyHunter
Milena Dimitrova
An inspired writer and content manager who has been with SensorsTechForum since the project started. A professional with 10+ years of experience in creating engaging content. Focused on user privacy and malware development, she strongly believes in a world where cybersecurity plays a central role. If common sense makes no sense, she will be there to take notes. Those notes may later turn into articles! Follow Milena @Milenyim
Follow Me:
- Guide 1: How to Remove Facebook Dislike Button Scam from Windows.
- Guide 2: Get rid of Facebook Dislike Button Scam from Mac OS X.
- Guide 3: Remove Facebook Dislike Button Scam from Google Chrome.
- Guide 4: Erase Facebook Dislike Button Scam from Mozilla Firefox.
- Guide 5: Uninstall Facebook Dislike Button Scam from Microsoft Edge.
- Guide 6: Remove Facebook Dislike Button Scam from Safari.
- Guide 7: Eliminate Facebook Dislike Button Scam from Internet Explorer.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
How to Remove Facebook Dislike Button Scam from Windows.
Step 1: Boot Your PC In Safe Mode to isolate and remove Facebook Dislike Button Scam
Step 2: Uninstall Facebook Dislike Button Scam and related software from Windows
Here is a method in few easy steps that should be able to uninstall most programs. No matter if you are using Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista or XP, those steps will get the job done. Dragging the program or its folder to the recycle bin can be a very bad decision. If you do that, bits and pieces of the program are left behind, and that can lead to unstable work of your PC, errors with the file type associations and other unpleasant activities. The proper way to get a program off your computer is to Uninstall it. To do that:
Follow the instructions above and you will successfully uninstall most programs.
Step 3: Clean any registries, created by Facebook Dislike Button Scam on your computer.
The usually targeted registries of Windows machines are the following:
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
You can access them by opening the Windows registry editor and deleting any values, created by Facebook Dislike Button Scam there. This can happen by following the steps underneath:
Tip: To find a virus-created value, you can right-click on it and click "Modify" to see which file it is set to run. If this is the virus file location, remove the value.
Before starting "Step 4", please boot back into Normal mode, in case you are currently in Safe Mode.
This will enable you to install and use SpyHunter 5 successfully.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Get rid of Facebook Dislike Button Scam from Mac OS X.
Step 1: Uninstall Facebook Dislike Button Scam and remove related files and objects
1. Hit the ⇧+⌘+U keys to open Utilities. Another way is to click on “Go” and then click “Utilities”, like the image below shows:
- Go to Finder.
- In the search bar type the name of the app that you want to remove.
- Above the search bar change the two drop down menus to “System Files” and “Are Included” so that you can see all of the files associated with the application you want to remove. Bear in mind that some of the files may not be related to the app so be very careful which files you delete.
- If all of the files are related, hold the ⌘+A buttons to select them and then drive them to “Trash”.
In case you cannot remove Facebook Dislike Button Scam via Step 1 above:
In case you cannot find the virus files and objects in your Applications or other places we have shown above, you can manually look for them in the Libraries of your Mac. But before doing this, please read the disclaimer below:
You can repeat the same procedure with the following other Library directories:
→ ~/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchDaemons
Tip: ~ is there on purpose, because it leads to more LaunchAgents.
Step 2: Scan for and remove Facebook Dislike Button Scam files from your Mac
When you are facing problems on your Mac as a result of unwanted scripts and programs such as Facebook Dislike Button Scam, the recommended way of eliminating the threat is by using an anti-malware program. SpyHunter for Mac offers advanced security features along with other modules that will improve your Mac’s security and protect it in the future.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Remove Facebook Dislike Button Scam from Google Chrome.
Step 1: Start Google Chrome and open the drop menu
Step 2: Move the cursor over "Tools" and then from the extended menu choose "Extensions"
Step 3: From the opened "Extensions" menu locate the unwanted extension and click on its "Remove" button.
Step 4: After the extension is removed, restart Google Chrome by closing it from the red "X" button at the top right corner and start it again.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Erase Facebook Dislike Button Scam from Mozilla Firefox.
Step 1: Start Mozilla Firefox. Open the menu window
Step 2: Select the "Add-ons" icon from the menu.
Step 3: Select the unwanted extension and click "Remove"
Step 4: After the extension is removed, restart Mozilla Firefox by closing it from the red "X" button at the top right corner and start it again.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Uninstall Facebook Dislike Button Scam from Microsoft Edge.
Step 1: Start Edge browser.
Step 2: Open the drop menu by clicking on the icon at the top right corner.
Step 3: From the drop menu select "Extensions".
Step 4: Choose the suspected malicious extension you want to remove and then click on the gear icon.
Step 5: Remove the malicious extension by scrolling down and then clicking on Uninstall.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Remove Facebook Dislike Button Scam from Safari.
Step 1: Start the Safari app.
Step 2: After hovering your mouse cursor to the top of the screen, click on the Safari text to open its drop down menu.
Step 3: From the menu, click on "Preferences".
Step 4: After that, select the 'Extensions' Tab.
Step 5: Click once on the extension you want to remove.
Step 6: Click 'Uninstall'.
A pop-up window will appear asking for confirmation to uninstall the extension. Select 'Uninstall' again, and the Facebook Dislike Button Scam will be removed.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Eliminate Facebook Dislike Button Scam from Internet Explorer.
Step 1: Start Internet Explorer.
Step 2: Click on the gear icon labeled 'Tools' to open the drop menu and select 'Manage Add-ons'
Step 3: In the 'Manage Add-ons' window.
Step 4: Select the extension you want to remove and then click 'Disable'. A pop-up window will appear to inform you that you are about to disable the selected extension, and some more add-ons might be disabled as well. Leave all the boxes checked, and click 'Disable'.
Step 5: After the unwanted extension has been removed, restart Internet Explorer by closing it from the red 'X' button located at the top right corner and start it again.
