WARNING: Facebook-Emulating Ad Spam Is Growing

Beware of ads that emulate Facebook color schemes and declare you have a friend request.

Check out this banner ad that I saw on the web. It has the Facebook color scheme, fonts, button design, and other elements. It even says you have a friend request from this girl, who apparently has two friends in common with you.

The reason why this works is that users don’t know the difference between a social widget and an ad. Both are items creeping off to the side. Imagine if these ads got smart enough to actually include friend images and names, just like social widgets do?

By the way, if you click on these ads, it goes to a spam dating site where you can rate women with unusually large breasts.

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