This morning we’ve been receiving numerous notifications about a misleading application that is spreading around that attempts to replicate Facebook’s like functionality. Users first find out about the application, called “Like”, as they receive a notification which says “Your Friend Likes your photo”. The user then clicks the link and installs the application which promptly sends notifications to all of that users’ friends.
While we’re not sure what the developers behind this application were trying to accomplish besides building up a large user base, we don’t recommend installing the application. In theory, the developers behind this application may simply be using this as a tool to harvest a large amount of information about thousands of Facebook users (as we recently described banks as doing).
We’re not currently aware of how many users have been affected but this application is definitely misleading. It uses Facebook’s “Like” icon and uses the application url “apps.facebook.com/farn_ville” to make users think they are installing something else. This application is spreading quickly and while we’d expect Facebook to shut down the application within the next couple hours, there’s a good chance this application will reach hundreds of thousands of users before being blocked.
As Facebook’s user base continues to expand, the risk of viral applications which are used to harvest user information increases and so far this is all we can assume this application is attempting to do. Considering that no information is displayed when you load the application page, most users simply think it’s a broken application.
The bottom line is this: don’t install the “Like” Facebook application.
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What about the fake Farmville pages that keep popping up – “Get the Green Chicken Before your friends”, “Get 3 Chicken Coops the Legal Way”, etc etc…aren’t these just harvesting users’ info?
Comment by anthony d — February 22, 2010 @ 11:05 am
You would think that Facebook would try to control these applications that are this misleading. If the gods at Facebook do not get this under control, trust in their service is going to be destroyed.
Comment by Carter Burger — February 22, 2010 @ 11:09 am
@Anthony. The pages cant harvest user info. The apps could do so, in a way that once users approve them – these apps could automatically pull in user data.
The pages, although fake, could only build up huge user bases, which could later be used to spam or whatever.
Comment by Bilal Hameed — February 22, 2010 @ 11:35 am
so what the heck do we do if we DID install the app?
Comment by mindy — February 22, 2010 @ 11:46 am
I got fooled into adding a “comments” application which did nothing but notify everyone in my friends list about it. This was a few months ago now, I tried finding information on the Internet about it to no avail
Comment by Lee Jarratt — February 22, 2010 @ 12:19 pm
yeah i’ve been getting many notifications about this application but thank goodness i have not allowed it to be downloaded – spread this message around to your friends
Comment by Carmk25 — February 22, 2010 @ 12:50 pm
I'm not sure if this qualifies for this discussion but I was wondering if the HEART that a associated with being married to a FB friend is an app…one of my FB friends showed up as being married to me, my name was on his information as his wife…I thought it was a joke or game but then people started to congratulate me and him and the joke was over. I went into my info and noticed his name was as my husband. I tried changing it but it won't allow me to type in my husbands name(says it's not recognized)the dropdown box has all the names starting with the letters Al which is my hubbies name but I see all my male "Al" etc. FB friends…I can't seem to get anything from FB to help me…has anyone else noticed this problem?
Comment by delia — February 22, 2010 @ 2:16 pm
Facebook should be a service SHUT DOWN TO ANY NEW & UNKNOWN APPLICATION until they have been approved as safe. In my eyes this shouldn’t be too difficult to accomplish technically (using a WHITELIST), and it would enable Facebook to easily keep ahead of all these SPAM & SCAM apps instead of trying to put the lid on each single one of them while ten new ones are created on a daily basis… But how can we convince Facebook to do things this way round???
Comment by Eckard Pfeifer — February 22, 2010 @ 2:53 pm
Why won’t Facebook own up to the problem that -they- created and allow users to add apps without exposing their personal information? People have been asking for that all along, but no, Facebook, wonderful champion of privacy, won’t do it.
Comment by Dan — February 22, 2010 @ 3:01 pm
One thing to note. The install is instant, once you click the link you install.
I have seen this a lot in the past couple days. Many people don’t even know how to remove an app. I wish this post had included a “how to remove an app” much like the one I made on my blog (“How to remove an Evil Facebook Spam App”).
My tactic has been:
-I made a facebook note with my blog post on “How to remove an Evil Facebook Spam App”
-If a notification occurs on facebook, I look at the name
-I tag the friend in my note which then lets their friends see the post on how to remove the app
-Hopefully this spreads just as fast as the app and stops it ASAP
Maybe I could write a guest post on how to remove an app?
=)
Comment by Jeff Tong — February 22, 2010 @ 3:30 pm
@Eckhard except for the fact that would have a cost. Facebook is a free service, they pay for their tech support etc with adspace.
Comment by Me — February 22, 2010 @ 3:42 pm
Applications like this one have been running rampant for ages now, dealing with them and with the friends that add them has been quite a hassle.
I like @Jeff's note method. I think I'll adopt it.
Comment by Jonah Price — February 22, 2010 @ 6:39 pm
Take the application off. Account -> Application Settings -> Remove applications you do not use, or have never heard of.
Comment by Matt — February 22, 2010 @ 7:28 pm
this is so serious. spread this news to all my friend now :O i hope their fb acc safe from this crappy apps
Comment by Facebook User — February 23, 2010 @ 1:12 am
Thanks for informing us, these applications are now seen every now and then these days.
Comment by Suhasini — February 23, 2010 @ 5:56 am
yeah i installed it but removed it right away, am i screwed?
Comment by B — February 24, 2010 @ 8:33 am
How did u remove it? I don't know what it's now called.
Comment by Ari Pilakoutas — February 25, 2010 @ 10:51 am
I got caught out… When I go to the list of apps to remove it, 'Likes' isn't there! But I definitely have it… i can turn notifications on and off for it!!? How do I get rid of it?
Comment by Tom — February 27, 2010 @ 10:51 am
How can I remove 1.likem.net? I clicked on "like" on a friends comment. It looked like a FB like but it is actually from this site. It doesn't not have the option to remove it. It does not show up in apps for me to remove. It displays in my Likes but there is not an option to remove.
I am assuming it is an app that does not provide a way to remove. Does anyone know how to remove this?
Comment by Trevor — October 12, 2010 @ 8:50 am
I have the same issue, and am looking for the same answer…I want to get rid of Likem from my favorites, but don't know how.. Any help i appreciated. Thank you.
Comment by David — December 2, 2010 @ 4:11 pm
enter text right here!
Comment by saheesh — January 3, 2011 @ 3:48 am