Despite what you may have heard, there is no Facebook dislike button.
At least not yet.
Scammers have picked up on people’s enthusiasm for Facebook’s much-anticipated dislike button and are running scams to introduce faulty code and steal users’ money and personal information.
A post showing up in some users’ newsfeeds claims to promote the new dislike button as an invite-only feature. Anyone who clicks on it is sent to a page that looks like a branded Facebook page . Users who want to install the button are instructed to share it with their friends and send it to five groups, according to Hack Read .
People want a Facebook dislike button so much that they’re getting scammed http://t.co/urzhWlBRs3
— Indy Tech (@IndyTech) September 24, 2015
Users who click on the dislike button links are sent to one of two revenue-generating sites that have nothing to do with Facebook, but are all too willing to accept personal information , according to Naked Security .
Some pages advertise get-rich-quick schemes while others promote expensive mobile phones or online surveys.
By asking Facebook users to click the share button, hackers are getting people to unknowingly spread their scam to their friends.
There is no evidence the scam installs malware, but computer security experts are recommending everyone to avoid clicking on the links or sharing the post.
There is an official Facebook dislike button coming soon, but it’s not out yet. When it does come out, it probably won’t take the form of a thumbs down icon as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t want to encourage a Reddit-style system of up and downvoting.
Facebook does intend to respond to users’ many requests for a button that expresses empathy but doesn’t want to promote people dissing each other’s baby photos, according to Time .
During a recent Q and A, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook was working on a button that would allow users to express concern or sadness, but said it was still in the works as the concept is more complicated than it appears.
Bottom line: stay away from any links advertising the dislike button because it doesn’t exist. If and when Facebook comes out with a new button it will be installed automatically , according to Naked Security .
“The important thing about a Facebook-provided Dislike button, of course, is that you wouldn’t need to go to some random-looking third-party site to download it. So, Dislike button scams ought to be obviously bogus these days. After all, Facebook itself just reminded us that it doesn’t have Dislike yet, but that if it gets one, it will be an official part of Facebook itself.”
Photo by David Ramos /Getty Images
