Fact Check

Facebook Timeline Removal Virus

Messages offering the removal of a Facebook Timeline harbor a computer virus?

Published May 29, 2012

Claim:

Virus:   Messages offering the removal of a Facebook Timeline harbor a computer virus.


FALSE


Examples:   [Collected via e-mail, May 2012]


Have you heard about this one on Facebook?

EVERYONE AND I MEAN EVERYONE !!!!! NEEDS TO SHARE THIS PLZZZZZ !!!!! IT JUST WIPED OUT A FRIENDS PC ............ IF ANYONE GETS A NOTIFICATION FROM ANY FRIENDS SAYING' THEY HAVE 'SENT YOU A REQUEST TO REMOVE TIMELINE' DONT CLICK ON IT WHATSOEVER ...... PASS THIS ON TO EVERYONE please !!!

Is it true?



 

Origins:   The new Facebook Timeline feature has not proved popular with many users of that social media site, and some have taken advantage of this dissatisfaction among the user base to spam Facebook users with messages offering plug-ins or other types of fixes to alter the timeline and restore a display similar to the older Facebook layout. Although recipients should generally refrain from clicking on messages offering to allow them to "get rid of Facebook Timeline" unless they are sure they originate with a trustworthy source, legitimate add-ons for altering the display of the Facebook timeline do exist, and we haven't yet seen any examples of such products' harboring malware.

Also, it isn't true that (as some people have interpreted this warning to mean) every message requesting that the recipient remove something from his Facebook Timeline necessarily harbors a PC-killing virus. Sometimes Facebook users do send their friends legitimate notifications advising them to remove items from their timelines, for a variety of reasons.

Some versions of this warning come



Do not open any message with an attachment called:"Invitation FACEBOOK", regardless of who sent it.

It is a virus that opens an Olympic torch that burns the whole hard disc C of your computer. This virus will be received from someone you had in your address book.
That's why you should send this message to all your contacts. It is better to receive this email 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.
If you receive E-MAIL called: "Invitation FACEBOOK", though sent by a friend, do not open it and delete it immediately. CNN said it is a new virus discovered recently and that has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever.

It is a Trojan Horse that asks you to install an adobe flash plug-in. Once you install it, it's all over. And there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information of their function is saved.


Last updated:   29 May 2012

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.