You may not be a fan of Facebook's Timeline, but you're stuck with it, despite a suspicious new "Facebook Timeline Remover" app making the rounds.
Introduced late last year, Facebook's Timeline upgraded the traditional profile to a more graphically dynamic one — a "visual CV of your life," MSNBC called it. In January, Facebook's hundreds of millions of users were given no choice but to adopt the Timeline feature. Not everyone was pleased with the profile upgrade.
Naturally, here's where the scammers come in, eager to capitalize by promising an easy way to scrub the Timeline right off your profile.
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Spreading via wall posts as well as through unsolicited emails, the rogue "Facebook Timeline Remover" app promises to do exactly that and even touts itself as "the only truly working solution approved by Facebook community."
Enticing, sure, but it's a hoax, and taking the bait could land you in troubled waters, according to the scam-spotters at Facecrooks.
Clicking the "Remove My Timeline" button sets the fake app in motion, triggering your computer to download a browser extension. Facecrooks researchers did not examine the extension, but it's possible it harbors malware aimed at sabotaging the systems of those fooled into believing the app could do the impossible.
Researchers at the security firm Sophos analyzed the Timeline Removal ploy as well and found that the "suspicious plugins" are hosted on a website created a few days ago, with its domain registered in Turkey. The entire terms of service for the supposed Timeline scrubber app are in Turkish.
Don't download any software, no matter how alluring it seems, without first checking to see if it's legitimate. If you come across an app like this on Facebook, do not trust it; Facebook, with its hundreds of millions of dedicated users, is a petri dish of scams and hoaxes, and the best advice is to steer clear of any too-good-to-be-true apps or offers. And, of course, make sure you have strong anti-virus software on your computer to help keep your system safe and detect and eliminate threats.