This story was first published on October 20, 2014
Outline:
Email purporting to be from Facebook claims that you have a message that will be deleted in a few days if you do not click a button to view it.
Brief Analysis:
The email is not from Facebook and the claim that clicking the buttons will take you to unread Facebook messages is untrue. The buttons open a spammy drug store website that tries to sell various dodgy pharmaceutical products.
Example:
Detailed Analysis:
The message advises that you have not been to Facebook for a few days and a lot has happened while you were away.
It invites you to click either a ‘View Messages’ or ‘Go to Facebook’ button to access the missed message before it is deleted.
Message is Not From Facebook – Pharmacy Spam
Instead, the buttons open a decidedly dodgy website that tries to entice you into buying equally dodgy health products.
Of course, it is a very bad idea to buy products from these spam websites. Because you do not need a prescription, you have no way of knowing if the medication you are buying is the real thing. In reality, it could be some dangerous or useless substitute. The medication may be ineffective or it may interfere with other medications you are using with adverse results.
Buying From Such Sites Puts Your Credit Card At Risk
Spammers have used this tactic repeatedly over the last few years. Apparently, at least a few recipients of these emails actually stay to buy the spam website’s products after they have been tricked into visiting.
If you receive one of these fake Facebook emails, do not click any links that it contains. If you do inadvertently click a link and end up on a pharmacy spam website, close the site immediately.
Importance Notice
After considerable thought and with an ache in my heart, I have decided that the time has come to close down the Hoax-Slayer website.These days, the site does not generate enough revenue to cover expenses, and I do not have the financial resources to sustain it going forward.
Moreover, I now work long hours in a full-time and physically taxing job, so maintaining and managing the website and publishing new material has become difficult for me.
And finally, after 18 years of writing about scams and hoaxes, I feel that it is time for me to take my fingers off the keyboard and focus on other projects and pastimes.
When I first started Hoax-Slayer, I never dreamed that I would still be working on the project all these years later or that it would become such an important part of my life. It's been a fantastic and engaging experience and one that I will always treasure.
I hope that my work over the years has helped to make the Internet a little safer and thwarted the activities of at least a few scammers and malicious pranksters.
A Big Thank You
I would also like to thank all of those wonderful people who have supported the project by sharing information from the site, contributing examples of scams and hoaxes, offering suggestions, donating funds, or helping behind the scenes.I would especially like to thank David White for his tireless contribution to the Hoax-Slayer Facebook Page over many years. David's support has been invaluable, and I can not thank him enough.
Closing Date
Hoax-Slayer will still be around for a few weeks while I wind things down. The site will go offline on May 31, 2021. While I will not be publishing any new posts, you can still access existing material on the site until the date of closure.Thank you, one and all!
Brett Christensen,
Hoax-Slayer
