The mask in the picture above is called a Guy Fawkes mask. There are many variations of the "Guy Fawkes masks" It is commonplace to see this mask worn at political and activist protests. It is often used as a symbol to support a cause.
At one time, their secret society of members were considered to be white hats - good guys - because it was believed that the righteous acts they performed were for the greater good of humanity.
One such instance was when they exposed security flaws of global companies, but they did it by illegally obtaining information -- by hacking the websites.
Another mission was when they set out to remove or ease the restrictions on Internet use in other countries. In the process, their methods ended up spreading mischief as they launched Internet attacks on governments, major corporations, financial institutions and religious groups by infiltrating (hacking) accounts on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Tumblr. They have successfully overtaken thousands of individual personal accounts.
On the Internet, the Guy Fawkes mask is the trademark of a Hacker group called "Anonymous" (sometimes called "Hackers Anonymous) and it is used as a signature on their completed Internet 'projects.'
A few spur Hacker groups have adopted the mask as their symbol and they use it as a scare and intimidation tactic.
Perhaps you have seen this mask on Facebook profiles, on LIKES lists and in photo albums of friend requests that were sent to you.
On Facebook, the Guy Fawkes mask is the face of two secret groups on Facebook -- "Scammers Anonymous" and "Hackers Anonymous."
The novice group member is given some in-group education, works alongside a mentor who then provides some on-the-job training. They are taught first how to become a Scammer, so they know how to scope out their prey, and ultimately how to hack Facebook accounts.
Their prey? Gamers - primarily Playtika Gamers. The most popular ways they target them are:
The novice group member is given some in-group education, works alongside a mentor who then provides some on-the-job training. They are taught first how to become a Scammer, so they know how to scope out their prey, and ultimately how to hack Facebook accounts.
Their prey? Gamers - primarily Playtika Gamers. The most popular ways they target them are:
1 - looking for relaxed security on an account regarding phone number, a city/state for present location, high school and employment listing, and live links to Facebook family members, to send friend requests to Gamers only,
2 - try to infiltrate Facebook game groups
3 - to build their friends list up to 5000 friends,
4 - to friend you so your friends will friend them
5 - and as a final step, set the Scam, to make a Facebook Page to rope in the victims.
When it comes to Facebook groups for games or hobbies, any Facebook account with a Guy Fawkes mask - whether it is a profile picture or is hidden in their photo albums - their request to join the group is generally not approved by experienced Group Admins.
Even if the mask is hidden, there is always something on their account that gives them away. It could be their location, their LIKES list, their Group list, certain friends who are known actors, the games they play (usually there's only one or two), or their activities while on Facebook.
You, as a player, are judged by the associations you keep. If you have bad actors on your friends list, your friend requests may be denied.
As for groups, if you keep hacker types on your friends list, you won't get approved to join the groups you want to join. No one wants suspicious characters on their friends list nor do they want to be responsible for their friends friending them, thinking they were OK.
As for groups, if you keep hacker types on your friends list, you won't get approved to join the groups you want to join. No one wants suspicious characters on their friends list nor do they want to be responsible for their friends friending them, thinking they were OK.
The goal of these 'Guys' is to quickly hit 5,000 Facebook friends, so they can execute the rest of their plan with their Scam Facebook Page and their secret Scam groups. That means they are friending hundreds of people in a very short period of time.
TIP
If you get a friend request from a "Guy" account, don't click CONFIRM. Instead, let the request sit for one full day. Take note of how many friends are showing when you first get their friend request. After 24 hours, check the number of friends again. No doubt you will see a large increase in their new friends. When you see that is what happened, delete the request and block them.
People who sport the Guy Fawkes mask on their profile picture or in their photo albums are not using it because they like the picture. They rarely work alone. Usually they work with at least one other person, so that if one loses their Facebook account, the other can continue on. This is important with any Facebook groups they have or any Facebook Pages they made.
Before "Guy" reaches 5000 friends, he has already pre-made a Facebook Page with himself and one other person as admins which will be used as a Scam Page. Their hook is promising 5M to 10M free game coins. The Page's privacy setting won't be changed to Public until "Guy" has made his quota of friends, so the Page won't be discovered when his profile is being looked over for friedning. When he is comfortable that his name is popular and readily recognized, he will change the privacy to "Published" so his Page is discoverable.
Then he will proceed to invite all his friends to LIKE his new Page. It's not a Scam Page yet. In the beginning it appears to be nothing more than a clone of the game's Fan Page, sharing all their posts and coins, just to build up their following.
By week three or four, the tone of the Page changes and visitors see the first posts appearing that promise the 5M or 10M "Free Coins" but there is a hitch.
They are granted only when the player performs 3 to 5 steps, for example:
- invites 10 friends to LIKE the Page,
- types thank you in a comment of a post,
- shares the post to their own timeline,
- provides email address for notification of coins
- grants permission to post on timeline and use player's name to promote the Page
- joins a secret group that promises more coins just for being a member.
These are free coins they will never receive.
Sometimes a Scam Page is disguised to look like a Game Support Page or a Page that claims to be the "only Page to offer" a one time "Get 10M coins FREE!"
The Scam Page will say or offer anything they have to, in order to get YOUR LIKE on their Scammy Page. That's all they need so they can attract your friends to LIKE their Scammy Page too.
If you are a high profile player or a well known name, just the presence of your name supporting their Scam Page or gracing their friends list will bring them a lot of prospects - your friends.
DID YOU KNOW?
DID YOU KNOW?
Part of Facebook's Terms of Service gives all Facebook Page owners the permission to see certain privacy information about the people who LIKED their Page. Usually this includes their friends list, their email address, their game preferences, and the one thing that many players don't read on the TOS - "the permission to change your posts or to post on your timeline as you."
The first time I read that last part, I called my lawyer. The audacity of wording! There was no other choice except to back out of the TOS agreement. To include that permission to change my posts or to post on my timeline "AS ME was over the top.
What about privacy issues and settings? What about breaking the security protocol I had on my account that I went to great lengths to safeguard?
What about privacy issues and settings? What about breaking the security protocol I had on my account that I went to great lengths to safeguard?
The truth of the matter is that any Page or Developer or Website owner can write anything they want to into their Terms of Service.
People will agree to it because they don't read it. They click through the screens as fast as possible to get to where they were headed when they landed on the site.
As long as the terms they wrote didn't go against the terms of service written by Facebook, then anything they want can be written into their permission blurb.
Hackers and Scammers become a Page Owner so they can gain some inside knowledge about the users who LIKED their Page, subscribed to their posts, or followed the steps to get free coins - they are all potential victims.
You have to allow them to have permission or you can't use their APP or Page.
This is how information was gathered by Cambridge Analytica - a firm who was contracted by the Trump 2016 US Election Campaign. Cambridge acquired user information that the Trump Organization in turn used to influence the outcome of the 2016 Presidential Election. But I digress.
Who would have thought that the information gained by Facebook Pages for 3rd party APPs would be helpful to a political party? By the same token, who would have thought that the information gained by YOUR LIKE on a Facebook Page would be helpful to a hacker?
Your LIKE is the gift that keeps giving because a Hacker or Scammer can get a lot of mileage out of your one LIKE.
If he has to abandon the Page or his Facebook account gets shut down, the remaining admin can turn the Page over to another cause because the LIKE FARMING they did is valuable. Pages with high numbers of LIKES sell for a princely sum on the Dark Web.
Users need to take it more seriously and understand that your personal information is YOUR personal information. It shouldn't be shared lightly and anyone's Terms of Service should be read. If the user is not in agreement, click the X to exit the site.
So what do they get for your LIKE?
They get access to your IP address (location), your email address, your online activities, your LIKES list, your friends list and the one thing that no one seems to understand the extent of - they get your permission to post as you or change your posts as needed.
Doesn't seem like that much to you, does it? In fact, most people would be OK with those terms. Well, what about the part when they want to BE YOU so they can post on your behalf??
An example of why that would happen: You write a comment on their Page, the TOS allows them to copy it and put it anywhere else they wish on the Internet so that when your name appears on the post, it is your name only and not theirs.
Another example: Maggie King LIKED our Page. Maggie says: Thanks for the free game coins!
Because Maggie LIKED the Page, wrote the required comment on a Post to qualify for free coins, they can take the comment and make it look like Maggie posted it in other places.
So you can see that your LIKE is also giving the Page Owner your permission to post on your behalf in the news feeds, CHANGE your information (something that I don't understand the need for at all!) and to post AS YOU on Facebook. I am not making this up. You gotta read the Terms of Service on some of the Pages you Liked.
And you don't have anything to say about it. Or do you?
These permissions are the tools that hackers need. The easiest way to get the tools is to set up a Facebook Page so they are 'legally" entitled to the info as a Facebook Page owner. Page owners are also allowed to use your name in their advertising so they can approach your friends in their sidebars to say that you also LIKED their Facebook Page and show any comments you made.
A high number of LIKES on a Facebook Page gives the Page certain perks in the Facebook algorithm.
1) the Page name moves to the top of the list in search engines, which helps the Page get more LIKES
2) it gets free advertising by planting the Page's name in the news feed of friends of those who LIKED the Page.
3) the more LIKES a Page has - the more notice it will get, the more it will appear to be legitimate, and the more it will escape the purview of Facebook's censor.
In other words, they look good on paper - or in this case, on screen.
So what do you do?
You get your LIKE off their Page! Then block the Page.
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If a Facebook Page doesn't have a blue check mark next to the Page's Name, it is not the Official Page for that topic. Facebook only verifies Pages that can prove they are who they say they are. If they use a game as their Page name, and they aren't affiliated with the game, they won't earn the blue check mark.
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Take a closer look at these "Guy Fawkes" accounts and decide if this is someone you want on your friends list.
Hopefully you will see that their mere presence on your list can send the wrong kind of message to future friend requests who may think you are a bad risk.
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