No, Facebook Black Isn’t a Real Thing; You’re Being Scammed

As more and more people join social networks like Facebook and Twitter, it only gets easier for scam artists to pick off a few non-discerning users. The latest scam that’s making its way across Facebook offers to change your user interface to a cool, new color if you’re sick of the boring old Facebook blue.

Users are now seeing images advertising the new “Facebook Black” in their news feeds. The image asks users to click a link shared above, which will then lead them to an official-looking app permissions screen. Of course, there’s no such thing as “Facebook Black” and clicking on the link will only open you up to a possible security breach.

Sophos’ Naked Security blog reports that the ruse is the work of survey scammers, who prey on unsuspecting users who will complete surveys in order to receive the promised product. These surveys earn affiliate cash for the scammers.

“Are you sick fo that boring old blue theme? Well now you have the power to change your facebook color to anything your heart desires,” reads the page. Sophos claims that some versions of the dubious link attempt to fool users by displaying a limited time offer and prompting them to generate a code to access the new feature.

Although they may look legit to the untrained eye, some of the scam landing pages can be easily identified because they have failed to wipe the text from previous clickjacking scams, such as the Remove Facebook Timeline scams popular earlier this year.

As always, the advice here is to investigate any “new feature” or “offer” that seems too good to be true or out of the ordinary. And if you happen to get caught up in a scam, make sure you remove any corresponding likes and app permissions from your Facebook account.