Facebook users were taken by surprise by a message stating that they would have to pay to use the platform starting on Saturday. Users were then asked to send the message to 10 of their contacts to show that they are loyal users and get that charge waived.
Don’t fall for it
The message claimed that after it is forwarded, Facebook’s logo will turn blue, and the platform will remain free. However, as evident, the message turned out to be a hoax.
“From Saturday morning facebook will become chargeable…..Send this message to 10 people. When you do the light will turn blue otherwise facebook will activate the billing,” the hoax message read.
Facebook has instructed its users to ignore the posts that promise awards or anything that claims to be from it.
The company said in a post,” We always advise you to block the sender, disregard the message and delete it.”
Time and again, the social networking giant has reminded its users that the service will remain free. Also it recently posted that it is a free site “and will never require that you pay to continue using the site.”
Top hoaxes on Facebook
Last year, users were targeted by another scam. Payday loans were taken out in their name after their details were stolen, notes Express.co.uk. Some British Facebook users’ accounts were hacked; then the hackers tricked their friends into revealing their personal details. The details were used to take out payday loans.
Another hoax story emerged recently about Facebook supposedly paying users to spy on other users. According to Snopes, a rumor posted on the website claimed that Facebook is taking monitoring and censorship efforts to the next level as it deploys its own users to monitor other users’ accounts. The rumor goes on to say that it is not possible to block everyone who is monitoring your account.
Among all the hoaxes, one of the top trending ones caused users to believe that CEO Mark Zuckerberg was giving away his $45 billion in Facebook stock to people. All the user supposedly had to do is copy and paste the hoax to their Facebook pages.
“According to Good Morning America, Not a hoax! Mark Zuckerberg has announced that he is giving away $45 billon of Facebook stock. What you may not have heard is that he plans to give 10% of it away to people like YOU and ME! All you have to do is copy and paste this message into a post IMMEDIATELY,” the hoax read.
