Most recently our Facebook feeds were filled with chain letters claiming that if you received a friend request from someone that it was an imposture that had created a fraudulent account and now you too may be affected and so on and so on and so on… Every other post on my feed was another chain letter – same as the first.  I am no Kim Kardashian of social media but I personally did not receive a single friend request fraudulent or otherwise.  Had I become increasing unpopular?  Probably.  Or as it turns out, no one was actually receiving these excessive friend requests.  This was simply a hoax created by someone to see how far a little fear based lie could take a post.  Apparently pretty far.  I was seeing these posts pop up from all over the country and later that week it hit national news stations.  Although this post was harmless, passing on “fake news” does have repercussions.  Without fact checking, thousands of people passed along and spread this post.  If it had any malicious content it could have caused major havoc in a very short period of time.  We have seen this many times in the past few years in security breaches on social media, our banks, and in our favorite stores.  Here is why fake news should be taken seriously.

These scams prey on our most basic human instincts: fear, ego, and curiosity.  The urge to take a mindless quiz on Facebook and then re-post our results may feed our egos and quench our boredom for the moment, but they are also helping scammers and marketers grow their personal knowledge of you.  What day/year were you born?  What town did you grow up in?  What types of things do you enjoy?  What sort of house would you want to live in?  These seemingly harmless questions are a hacker and marketer’s dream.  Especially since when you clicked on the link you were transferred to another site that is no longer protected under the agreements of the safe site you started on. and now in the small print you passed over you may have given this third party permission to access personal info – which may include your contact list and their personal information on your phone.

Once enough personal information has been gathered or hacked from your computer, or malicious software downloaded from a suspicious email or link you opened, your computer may be rendered useless. Your personal info may be held for ransom or if enough personal information is gathered, someone may set up fraudulent persona posing as you to open accounts or hide under your identity while creating further cyber chaos – all in your good name.

If you are dying to see what you might look like as a redhead, you are the “winner” of a million dollars via a misspelled email, or because you read a post that said if you don’t forward you will have 10 years bad luck, take a minute and do a bit of fact checking.  A simple Google search is often a great place to start fact checking sites, emails, or posts for safety and validity. There are also other sites like Snopes and MBFC News that help debunk these fraudulent viral scams surfing around the internet.  If you don’t have the time to fact check, ignoring and/or deleting are your best options. Having anti-virus software on your computer, a firewall, and regularly backing up your information can help keep our information secure.  The internet is an amazing place, but please help keep it safe by not spreading fake news, scams, or virus’s. Plus, I always liked your natural hair color anyway.