In summary:
- PCWorld warns about a resurgent Facebook scam claiming to show who viewed your profile, which Facebook explicitly states does not exist.
- The fraudulent posts use sensational titles and redirect users to phishing sites like ‘bildnachricht.com’ to steal login credentials.
- This recurring scam targets users’ curiosity about profile visitors, making it essential to avoid clicking such links entirely.
One of the things many Facebook users have long wanted is a feature that shows who has visited and viewed their profiles. Now, a Facebook post is promising exactly that—but it’s a scam.
Austrian fact-checking site Mimikama recently warned (machine translated) that a Facebook post with sensationalist title “Who’s stalking your profile? See names in 30 seconds” claims there’s a new feature that shows which Facebook users have visited your profile.
The phrase “NEW: See who’s visited your profile!” is followed by a link. Clicking on this link is supposed to open a list of supposed visitors, but it actually leads to an external site on domain bildnachricht.com, which has nothing to do with Facebook.
The false website claims that dozens of people have visited your profile and you’re just one click away from accessing the full list. If you click on it, you’re asked to log in with your Facebook details.
However, Mimikama followed the link and verified that the link in question leads to a phishing site designed to steal the login credentials of interested Facebook users. As of now, Facebook still does NOT offer a feature that allows you to view who has visited your profile. Facebook explicitly says so on this support page:
Facebook doesn’t let people track who views their profile. Third-party apps also can’t provide this functionality. If you come across an app that claims to offer this ability, please report the app.
This isn’t the first time there’s been a scam that claims to be able to show you who’s visited your Facebook profile. It’s an age-old trap, and it’s no surprise that it’s making the rounds again. Attackers will do anything to trick Facebook users into revealing their login details.
Further reading: About 10% of Meta’s revenue is from scammers
This article originally appeared on our sister publication PC-WELT and was translated and localized from German.
Author: Hans-Christian Dirscherl, Managing Editor, PC-WELT
Hans-Christian Dirscherl began his IT life with Autoexec.bat and config.sys, Turbo-Pascal and C, Sinix and Wordperfect. He has been writing on almost all IT topics for around 25 years, covering everything from news to reviews and buying guides.