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FarmVille Freak Techie: How to detect a scam or fake post on Facebook!
All FarmVille players should be aware of scam or fake reward posts/groups and how to detect them in their Facebook homefeed. These scams seem to be increasing at an alarming rate and have started to look more authentic, but are not! ‘Click here to get your blue turtle’, ‘200 free FV$, just click here’ or most recently, ‘Join to receive rare collectables’ are not real offers. These fake or scam groups cannot and will not provide you with any rewards or unreleased items. Only through Zynga can you purchase FV$, puppies, adopt animals or receive special rewards. To protect yourself, your Facebook account and your friends, FarmVille player Brian Weaver provided the following tips:
FarmVille Freak Brian's How can you tell if a post on your News Feed is a REAL or a FAKE FarmVille post? (Click to Enlarge)
Just to reiterate, the word FarmVille and the ear of corn must both be visible in a post’s footer for it to be authentic.
Another great way to check for a fake or scam post is by clicking the ‘hide’ option on homefeed. Simply, hover your mouse over the upper right hand side of a post and click hide. If it says anything other then “Hide FarmVille”, it is a fake!
FarmVille Hide Function for Scams I
FarmVille Hide Function for Scams II
Are you annoyed by these fake posts filling your home feed? Make sure to share this post on Facebook to let your farming friends know.
Tags: fake farmville group pages, farmville, farmvillefreak.com, scams, tips
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 12:52 pm
It happening A lot lately, we have to be on high alert!!! (*O*)
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
I didn’t know this was an issue but thanks for the heads up !!
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
I had one of the posts come up from a friend this morning that almost fooled me until I clicked on it. It had the ear of corn but it said for example…11 minutes ago via via farmville….it had that via twice so watch out for it also.
I hate those scams!!!
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 1:02 pm
now there is a new one with percheron foals, the only diference is that it says via via farmville instead of via farmville
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 1:04 pm
I am so sick of seeing people posting this crap after they have joined these fake pages, of course they are fake! I don’t see why its so hard to look at something that says Free 2000 FV dollars join here! and not see that its fake, idiots.
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
because a majority of people are to stupid to notice that its fake they always think that on the informatic you can get all free because of hacker … but hell ya they know nothing lol
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
me and my friends are now coming across a scam that is using the farmville icon now too!!! its called Farmville v they send out collectables and animals and eggs everything they are infesting our feeds!!! People are IDIOTS!!!
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Not al of the fakes are easily recognizable. I have posted numerous percheron foals to my friends and the fake looks exactly the same as the real one other than the “via via Farmville” at the bottom. I don’t blame my friends for falling these, I only try to inform them of the differences. Some of the newer players just don’t know any better yet.
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Now these groups have applications that look like this…
via via Farmville
via Farmville v
The second one of those is showing this person as the developer
http :// www. facebook. com/profile.php?id=100000581376637
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
anyoen seen that percheron foal adoption thing? it has the corn, and in some cases says from Farmville or Farmvillefarm
looks very real, apart from it says, I have found a foal..
instead of.. Sam has found a foal or whatever.
clever.
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 1:25 pm
This is SO annoying and they are getting very real looking.
Can someone tell me WHAT might happen when we click on these? virus? access to personal info? I’m just not sure what to watch for if I goof and click by mistake.
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
If it’s not in FV Freak than i know it’s a scam site, I mean i can’t bulieve someone won 400FV$ and you freaks not making a thread about it
That’s why i love this site
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
That’s not all true farmvillefreak. This morning I saw a post for many percheron foals.. but when i clicked on it, it lead to something else. luckily i was on my phone so nothing happened. Next I went on to my laptop and found that posting again. It had all the farmville signatures.. Even when I tried hiding it, it would lead me to hide farmville itself. Yet when I hovered over the link, I looked at my status bar, and the address had nothing to do with farmville. Yeps. what to say about that?
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 1:48 pm
I’m sorry to be a farm pooper, but the new scams are appearing with BOTH the corn cob AND the “via Farmville” words. When you click on eithervthe picture or the link it takes you, of course someplace else. So they are a little bit more difficult to spot now. My suggestion to you all: REPORT THE SCAMMERS. Scroll to the end of their wall and click on “report page”. On the scrolldown list, select “impersonating myself or someone I know”. And on the next scrolldown, type in “http.//facebook.com/Farmville” (the “person” being impersonated. This last step is a must).
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 1:50 pm
The Percheron foal one says
“about an hour ago via via FarmVille”
The word VIA is there twice. Meaning their application name is *via FarmVille* instead of *FarmVille* which is the correct.
And if you hover over the link, the application id is NOT 102452128776. That is the ONLY legit FV application id.
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 1:50 pm
I am sick of it too! My mom found one that had an ear of corn, but said via via farmville, instead of via farmville
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
I just found one called “via FarmVille” instead of “FarmVille”
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
Yay! I spotted their trick: the link says “[posted] (x amount of time) ago via via Farmville”. (Notice the word “via” is used twice). When you go to the “hide” options, you see the word “Farmville” and the corn and are afraid to hide. Well, just notice that it says to hide VIA Farmville (not just “Farmville” as it should). They incorporated the word “via” to the name to make it look like its FV. So please, hide VIA FARMVILLE. And report it too.
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 2:00 pm
AND…. thinking maliciously, and taking things a bit further… This comes at the exact time FB and FV are having a tizzy over I don’t know what the hell issues. Hmmmmm….. Couldn’t “someone” be trying to p*ss-off FV fans? I’M JUST SAYIN’!
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
The real link will show the ear of corn and via FarmVille (notice the capital letters) ….not via Farmville . Fakes also include…..via Farmville v” or via via Farmville.
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
Someone else warned of the “via Farmville” trick. I only cottoned onto it because it insisted that I post even when I didn’t want to that they could adopt a foal, (the original post) which was really odd since you can never let someone else adopt from your adoption. It didn’t let me skip or anything, and that made me suspicious, so I got out of it by leaving Facebook altogether. This is a really insidious copycat, so watch carefully.
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 2:15 pm
I got the percheron foal one this morning too but really loved the one that had neighbors send invited for 25.00 farm cash? I had like 100 in my my inbox so annoying.
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
hate the fake groups peaple send them me all the time add me
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 2:43 pm
please advise – what happens if you click on one of the scams by mistake??
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
It’s a shame and another reason I will be glad Zynga parts ways from Facebook. Some of my friends are deleting other friends and neighbors because they are afraid they will get a virus. It is hard to explain to new players who just joined Farmville and click on any animal/ink they can get. It’s annoying and as soon as you figure it’s a scam an hour later they pop up with a new link.
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 3:30 pm
@Pam – Nothing. You will just make their group bigger. I’ve been testing a lot of this pages. They’re pretty secure.
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
Zynga-live will solve all these problems. No more scams, no more attention hores.
Which would mean we’d have to wait until some time next year.
I just hope it doesn’t take ‘m as long as it took ‘m to give us our dogs
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
In the mean time, you probably shouldn’t click on any of them, even if your “testing” or just want to see what happens. Unless you want your computer to be part of a zombie network.
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
I’m not so much annoyed with the posts themselves – I’m really annoyed with the morons who consistently click and post these things.
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
One friend just posted freefarmgifts.com i dont know if it works, but after this I took a closer look and the link has an ear of car and says via fv, but there are two “via”s…. they are getting ridiculously sneaky!
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
You need to change this, most have the ear of corn. So if they didn’t read the feed posts well enough and just look for the corn someone will click it.
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
Yes, you need to change this. There is one going around that is posting the rare collectible feathers.
Blue feathers, red feathers. Looks so damn authentic. Even has the ear of corn.
If I could send a pic I would. They are all over the feeds.
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
FYI…… “via Farmville” is also a scam….so having the corn and the name Farmville is not going to be sufficient….you must also use the HIDE method to uncover this and others like “Farmville v”……
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 4:34 pm
The scams are getting more insidious. However, the morons who make this stuff, are NOT the problem. The mindless drones who click, become fans, and invite friends to these pages are the real problem. I delete anyone at all from FB and FV if they even “become a fan” of one of these stupid pages. This post from FVF should be more clear the ear of corn and via Farmville used to be enough to spot a fake… now you have to read each word of the post to make sure it isn’t a link to some virus laden site.
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
@Pam,
Way before, without knowing about all this, I did click on one of these links. It really messed up my computer.
We had to have it wiped out; it had 12 Trojans our antivirus couldn’t even get rid of which is run faithfully every night.
So, just be careful.
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
the new fake ones say via via farmville, they otherwise look real!
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
They have changed the fake one so now it says via farmville v. this is super annoying!
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
Good article good piece of information
but if it sounds too good to be true it probably is is always a good rule
also if it’s official Farmville it will be in your drop down menu (show similar)
if it shows up by itself it’s a fake
but none of this will keep these people from joining these things
because in general people are greedy
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 5:35 pm
The new ones have an ear of corn and say Farmville
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
grr silly dum me only did 1 of those adopt white foul but the ok button came up i havent checked it yet as its my 2nd farm (yep total freak) lol i do hope it was a gd 1 but its so easy 2 do peeps were not stupid like some have said we just need 2 b aware of the prob so thanks 2 those who brought this up x
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 7:16 pm
I clicked on one of the free blue feathers that was via farmville v. Do you think I have a virus? I didn’t realize it was a fake.
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 8:33 pm
I always report the fakes, but don’t know if FB does anything about it. Or even if it’s against the rules. Some ppl are dumb but most are just too trusting. At least I hope so.
Posted on May 10th, 2010 at 10:11 pm
@ Amber, if you clicked on the blue feather and then went to the next page and clicked on “LIKE” then you have to remove them from your applications ASAP. To do this go to your Account (top right corner on feed or profile page) Select – Edit Applications, then choose “Authorized”… you will see a list that you authorized and they each have an X at the end. This is what you click on to delete them. Look for Farmville v or Farmville via or anything that has free gifts in it. Delete them all and they no longer have access to your personal info. They may give you a virus or they may just sell your info or anything in between.
Posted on May 11th, 2010 at 3:47 am
Nice info, thanks for the heads up!
Posted on May 11th, 2010 at 9:43 am
Some of them have both. I hover over the link to see where it goes if I click on something.
Posted on May 11th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
There is a new one out has the corn in the beginning and says so n so found a wandering White Stallion on their farm —- via FormVille
Be careful out there! Look before you click.
Posted on May 11th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
I found another variation on the fakes on FB today. These look VERY ligitimte. They have the ear of corn, only one “via” BUT FarmVille is spelled FormVille. At first glance it looks the same but when you realy look at it, the “a” in Farm is changed to an “o”. Keep your eyes open. Plus, I hadn’t seen this white stallion on here as a new item or coming soon….
Posted on May 12th, 2010 at 3:14 am
Ok.. for the folk that know and have been doing farmville for a long time… no, they dont know… they are not idiots… or stupid!!!! I have been playing farmville for a few years and though I have never had or clicked on a scam, I can understand that some may click on one quickly without giving it too much notice. I know of a few folk that have just got the internet… never mind facebook. Most things are learnt if not told and if you have not learnt or been told, it does NOT make you stupid or an idiot! Farmville is a friendly game… keep it that way and stop insulting people!!!!! Though for the few who need to feel better about them selves, I will now be their target for insults!! lol
Posted on May 12th, 2010 at 10:29 am
Someone in my friends list posted one that has the ear of corn but FarmVille is spelled “Farmvile”.
Posted on February 15th, 2011 at 12:41 pm
I just got some of these spams too, not knowing its a spam (it looked too real and it was from a friend I trust) I clicked on it, bt thankfully my anti virus didnt load the next page, so i was safe. but plz guys be aware that there are lots of ppl who try to steal ur profile, info and even pix, so advice your kids on how to stay safe. the article was helpful tnx!