Got another Facebook scam.
Yes, it was from a Facebook “friend.” As has been predictable, it was an older Facebook friend, someone who doesn’t really understand computers in the first place. So I know that she didn’t write directly on my Wall, urging me to try that latest diet trick that Oprah is all nuts about.
I marked the message as spam.
As Facebook lumbers towards its inevitable decline, I’ve going to make some observations.
First, there was a fiasco when the world’s most evil company, Goldman Sachs (sorry, Apple), tried to sell Facebook stock before it was legal to do so in the United States.
Yes, it seems there are plenty of idiots out there willing to pay good money to buy stock in Facebook. I don’t blame them: The stock will skyrocket when it’s eventually offered for reals, probably sometime next year.
I predict that Facebook stock will be tendered at about $45/share. Insiders, crooks, the well-connected, and politicians (all the same person) will probably pick up shares from their buds at Goldman-Sachs for $20/share. Then, when Facebook is actually sold, it should hop out at about $65/share. It will immediately fly to $200/share.
That’s when you should sell.
Oh, yeah, the Facebook stock will probably go higher than $200/share, but you want to sell before it crashes and burns.
Second, going back to my original comment: A lot of people just don’t get Facebook. People join because they’re pressured to join. Then they don’t do anything and their account gets hacked, or they do something stupid like play Farmville all day and bug the rest of us. It’s just not good news, and it’s not worth the extra work for the rest of us to pile on our Facebook defenses. Speaking of which:
Third, Facebook has a new privacy setting you need to activate: Secure Browsing. It’s a good idea to access Facebook using the secure, https URL instead of standard http. That security prevents your Facebook password from being transmitted in the open.
Recently, a blogger was able to grab 20 Facebook passwords in just half an hour. He was sitting in a cafe running standard Wi-Fi scanning software. That meant there were 20-some-odd accounts he could have hijacked, no sweat.
To activate secure browsing for Facebook, follow these steps:
- Click the Account menu and choose Account Settings.
- Click the Change link by Account Security.
- Place a check mark by Secure Browsing (https).
- Click the Save button
Fourth: Learn to wean yourself from Facebook.
