By REBECCA RUTHERFORD
Los Alamos
For the Los Alamos Daily Post

Nothing goes viral quicker than a scam, and this one has been popping up in my Facebook feed once again, so time to break it down…

The copy paste Facebook scam is one of those unkillable, zombie scams that just won’t die.

The post follows a similar pattern to the one below:

This and similar hoaxes have been spreading for over a decade, so you’ve probably seen it, maybe you’ve even shared it.

At best this is a hoax, at worst a scam. Nothing will “upgrade the system” to display more of your friends’ activity, and nothing will remove those obnoxious ads.

Remember those chain email messages urging you to pass on to another person or face dire consequences? Basically that’s what this is, it’s just a hoax post that goes viral and keeps spreading because people would love for it to be true.

While there likely isn’t anything actively malicious the action of posting the text will do to your account, there is one thing it might do; flag you as an easy mark for scammers. If you are posting publicly, and a scammer sees this, it’s a red flag that you are likely an easy target for any other scams.

It is easy to search Facebook for specific keywords present in these messages, and then target your account for other scams. If I were a bad guy, I would definitely do this, assume the person posting it probably didn’t use MFA or super secure passwords and go after their account. So do not make yourself a target by posting junk. And be careful with public Facebook posts, they can give scammers an easy way in.

If you see friends posting this scam don’t give in to the temptation to repost it; it’s a scam.

There are ways you can adjust what you see in your Facebook feed:

• You can adjust your ad settings. This won’t really reduce them, but you can make them more targeted to things you are interested in.  
• Possibly an ad blocker might be able to help reduce Facebook ads as well.
• The algorithm prioritizes things you interact with more, so friends and businesses that you comment on or like are more likely to appear in your feed.
• Favorites – how you get here varies based on the platform you are using, but you can use favorites to select pages and people you want to see more of in your feed. Favorites will allow you to select up to 30 friends and pages to prioritize on your feed.

So yes, there are some things you can do, but copying and pasting this text will not do anything except probably make you a target for scammers. So stay safe online, ignore the scam, and share this article to let your friends and family know to avoid it as well!