Designer Ben Pieratt spotted an eye catching group in his feed this morning. His sister had joined a group called “WE’RE AGAINST THE 4.99 A MONTH CHARGE FOR FACEBOOK FROM JUNE 30TH 2010″.
Naturally intrigued, as he hadn’t heard any news about an upcoming monthly charged, he visited the group to discover it had 133,000 members but not one wall post. It did however contain a link to URL with reportedly malware and porn, but also attempts to download 25 items to your hard drive.
With any luck Facebook will remove the group shortly but how it’s managed to reach 133,000 members without anyone taking notice is beyond me.
A screenshot of the group is below if you or anyone you know is a member, ensure you or them are removed immediately – and notify Facebook here.
Of course, we can only speculate as to what kind of damage has been done so far, how many computers infected. It is disheartining to see something so bad get so big, and keep growing. This could quickly become a standard trick in the scam arsenal. Facebook needs to point an eye in this direction.
Facebook has always had a problem with scams, just as any massive social service will. There have been the classic 491 scams, and the ever popular hidden fee scams. This one however is new to us, and is quite unnerving.
Facebook, fix this.
Based in London, Zee is Editor in Chief of The Next Web.Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by The Next Web and Zee M Kane, MartinSFP. MartinSFP said: RT @thenextweb: 133,000 Member Facebook Group is One Big Scam http://bit.ly/8HH5VK by @Zee [...]
God this show just how stupid a lot of Facebook users are. They deserve to have their PC’s infected
Hi Zee,
Hope you’re enjoying your holiday season. Just a quick you for posting this, since I do have several friends and clients who need looking after….Yes, James…the STUPID ones…who are attorney’s, CPA’s, Judges, Doctors, Politicians, Dentist’s, Nurses, Clergy…you know, those “stupid folk” who have dedicated their careers to helping others.
Happy New Year, Zee : )
Just goes to show the average IQ of the people in charge these days. A tad frightening.
So why aren’t YOU in charge, smart guy?
I think Harley Quinn knocked it out of the park.
Amazing that these people need your help. The people we trust with our justice system, our money, and our health can’t even figure out how to use and maintain a piece of equipment that is beyond vital to their everyday business AND pleasure.
I’m pretty sure there was a time where people functioned without computers. It’s probably not as vital as you think, although it’s definitely convenient.
Then Michele Lorito-Chase those people should probably be sacked if they can’t even operate a basic website. At the very least they should be banned from using the Internet until they have gone on a basic computer class
Blah blah blah.
Some smart IT need legal counseling with elementary legal affairs…hence, kick ‘em out from the society.
Trolls should be banned from using the Internet until they have gone on a basic computer class.
Apostrophes, my good woman! Otherwise, one might think that the stupid people you speak of belong to attorneys, Certified Public Accountants, judges, doctors, politicians, dentists, and such. It’s confusing!
My sentiments exactly.
Happy New Year to you too Michele! :)
Mmmm… Frankenstein agree. This show how stupid they are.
No they do not they didnt know til it happens. and it now closed
What a cynical person…stupid is a strong word, maybe they are naive or trusting…I think YOU deserve to be infected!!! lol
James, What a cynical person…stupid is a strong word, maybe they are naive or trusting…I think YOU deserve to be infected!!! lol
Nice sentiment. So anyone who doesn’t meet your level of *ahem* intelligence should have their PCs infected/ruined because of joining one group? I personally hate anyone named James so I hope your car’s engine explodes.
its 419 not 491
Easy.
Macro start > Login to FB > Fav Group > Done :)
That’s how it’s done
[...] 133,000 Member Facebook Group is One Big Scam, thenextweb.com [...]
205,000 members and counting. Facebook is asleep at the wheel.
Massive overreaction here, any word followed by .on.nimp.org triggers what is known on the internets as the “Last Measure”. It’s often used as a way for sage old folk to temporarily get rid of trolls. It’s not a spam site, but rather something that triggers a billion unclosable popups.
Then give their pop-ups a try Richard and see what you think. It’s pretty vicious stuff.
My point is that whoever set up this group did it as an evil prank. If it was a scam, they’d be luring victims in to take their stuff
=== popurls.com === popular today…
yeah! this story has entered the popular today section on popurls.com…
I never join any of those kind of groups, or play any FB games.
[...] Scam 133,000 Member Facebook Group is One Big Scam __________________ """Kroger Delta Region Shopper""" Need baby [...]
Looks like they have removed it!
yea they removed it. earlier this morning my friend sent me the group invite, I checked it out and reported them to FB. I just don’t understand how people can read something like that and believe it enough to panic and join – but won’t read what FB admins themselves deliver to their inbox or news feed and/or the ToS. Meh.
Social Engineering like this is always going to be the easiest way to spread speam
Thanks for article.
I’m not that guy who joins groups or plays games like farmville ea. on Facebook. It’s sad to see that so many people joined this group already without getting to know what it’s really about, wether it’s a scam or not.
[...] pode acabar baixando 25 itens para o HD dos usuários. Segundo o site The Next Web, a expectativa é de que o grupo seja removido. O mistério é como o grupo conseguiu 133 mil [...]
Well, since july 2009, whole mainland china cannot access to facebook, so if they want to charge, better talk to our government, even charge a penny, it will be huge with 1.3 billions base number of the market!!!
[...] Facebook has always had a problem with scams, just as any massive social service will. There have been the classic 491 scams, and the ever popular hidden fee scams. This one however is new to us, and is quite unnerving.Source:http://thenextweb.com/2009/12/28/133000-member-facebook-group-big-scam/ [...]
Folks I didn’t even join it. All I did was copy the link to see what they were talking about and thats when I got all the popups so before you call anyone else stupid. STOP
So-what do we do if we were unfortunate enough to actually investigate a sight, rather than blindly joining it, & got hit with this filth? How do I, the average person without tons of computer knowledge, get this junk off my computer? AND-is there a list anywhere of everything it corrupts computers with?
While I was one of them that did go there, a lot of other people calling us stupid went there also and possibly got their PCs infected. I don’t think I even joined it. I only made a comment. I am one of the ones very careful of that stuff, and I had no idea whether or not that was real, but for now on I know to stay off. Don’t judge other people because even the ones calling them stupid could be lured also, do don’t you think you can’t.
[...] Major Internet Security Companies sees that users of Facebook are accepting invitations from unknown groups and events. If bad guys starts a Scam Group and send it across the network, without knowing who it is we will go ahead and accept it just for fake popularity. If you do so, your personal info will be on the Air. See this link where 133,000 members joined in a Facebook group finally found out to be a BIG SCAM. [...]
I’ve seen loads of those “WE AREN’T GONNA PAY FOR FACEBOOK BAAAAAAAW” groups, although as far as i have seen, they have all just been created for the purpose of the creator to round up millions of idiots in a single group. (or worse yet, somebody who honestly believes facebook would become a paysite). In my opinion, i think it’d be best if facebook just deleted all stupid groups like that, but one thing is for certain – there will be BAWWW.
I joined a group with a similar title (a different one though, I can’t be sure because it seems to have been deleted), not because I thought it was serious but because I thought it would be funny to have my joining the group show up in my friends’ news feed and give them a scare. Based on the comments and such in the group’s page that I remember, I think most of the people were in on the joke.
Actually, these days, for many, computers ARE vital. Not the internet users, etc, but business who no longer use paper for files (including many doctors). Yes they should (and most do) back up their systems, but that doesn't mean there aren't problems when computers go down.
Unfortunately a lot of people DON'T get that facebook is not considering, and never WILL consider, charging for its services. They COULD opt for a paid level of higher service (add free, extra benefits, etc), but it's basic services will always remain free.