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Global Voice Magazine
S TAY I N G S A F E I N A N U N S A F E WO R L D… … …
FA C E B O O K : F U L L O F H OA X E S E d B e c h e r, C O R C I , C H T I , C S M IA
Facebook, with over 2,072 million users monthly (1.66 Billion Mo b i l e u s e r s m o n t h l y ) i s one of the most popular social media platforms us ed. Many of us will use them not only for personal use but also as part of our small business. But the question d o e s c o m e u p “A r e w e using them safely?”
Ma ny o f u s h av e w i t n e s s e d t h e h o a x t h at occurred in October 2018 with people report-
ing that they had been hacked. While many did believe they had been hacked, the text messages they received were all part of a hoax meant to get people excited and ups et. The message many people received: “Hi....I actually got another friend request from you which I ignored so you may want to check your account. Ho l d y o u r f i n g e r o n t h e
message until the forward button appears... then hit for ward and all the people you want to f o r w a r d t o o. . . . I h a d t o do the people individu a l l y. P L E A S E D O N O T AC C E P T A N E W f r i e n d s h i p F R O M M E AT T H I S T I M E .” Ye a h i t w a s a h o a x , t h e message did not come f r o m a “f r i e n d”, y o u a c count was not hacked or c l o n e d . It w a s j u s t t h a t -- a hoax. But how can y o u b e s u r e ? Tr y t h i s : a) In the search box on Facebook, type the name you use for your Facebook account. b ) H o w m a n y o f “ y o u” do you find…. c) Oh just you, no othe r a c c o u n t s , w e l l t h a t’s good. Facebook has seen many hoaxes since 2011; one that has been going around was that you had sent ‘insults and p or nographic’ pic tures.
Nop e… hoax. L e t’s r e m e m b e r h o w many us ers Faceb o ok has; over 2.7 million and g r o w i n g e v e r y d a y. H o w many f riends do you have on Facebook? Say you have 200 friends, and you receive that h o a x m e s s a g e . Yo u r e ceive the message and you send it to 20 friends, those 20 friends send it to 20, and so on and so on. Think about the s cop e of it: how many people have now received that message? How can we avoid b ecoming part of the hoax? Ever y one of us has the ability to fact check w h a t w e r e c e i v e . Ye a h I k n o w I ’v e h e a r d i t t o o, ‘Ever ything you see on the internet has to b e t r u e , a n d i t’s o n t h e i n t e r n e t’. But do not believe ever ything you see or find to be true. As business owners and entre-
