Facebook users often use the email notification service to inform them of events on the site, whether it’s a new friend request, a reply to a comment or a photo tag. The notifications always have a handy button to get to the exact point in the site of interest. The problem is trying to work out whether to trust the links.<\/p>\n
FaceBook doesn’t exactly help it’s users to feel comfortable – it uses long complex strings in it’s URLs, odd domain names and a range of different email formats and senders. If it just sent a link to the item (eg. http:\/\/facebook.com?id=987112) then we could be sure we’re not going to suddenly become friends with a scammer or perform some other action. <\/p>\n
Ed Bott over at ZDNet has compiled a set of real and fake Facebook notifications and invites you to try to see which is which. The fact that this is so difficult is a perfect illustration of the problem.
\nThe simple answer is to never click on links purporting to come from Facebook unless they have some obviously personalized information that you recognize (and perhaps not even then). Scam\/Spammers don’t often have the time or skills to hand-craft each email so they will be very generic.<\/p>\n
Best practice to avoid phishing attempts is to NEVER click on any links received by email. Always type in the URL yourself or use a bookmark then you won’t get any nasty shocks!<\/p>\n
Read Ed Bott’s article in full Here<\/a><\/p>\n