End of Facebook on March 15th? Hoax!

Heard a story that Facebook is going to end on March 15th? You should take it with a pinch of salt.

A story is spreading like wildfire across Facebook this weekend, claiming that the world's most popular social network is closing on March 15th.

The reason? CEO Mark Zuckerberg claims that "managing [Facebook] has ruined my life. I need to put an end to all the madness."

 I certainly wouldn't disagree that users would be wise to have their own backup of their photographs, rather than rely on Facebook - but it's nothing more than a scare to suggest to people that they have to do it before March 15th because Facebook is going to close down.

Most people would probably never believe such a load of old nonsense as the claim that Mark Zuckerberg is going to shut down Facebook, but it only takes a small proportion of people to think it might be possible to turn a joke of a news story into an internet hoax.

And although a hoax is nothing like as bad as a piece of malware worming its way between users and stealing information, it's still a nuisance, clogging up communications, increasing the overall level of spam and perhaps leading people to make decisions for the wrong reasons.

There's an important lesson here - don't believe everything you read on the internet, and think twice before you pass a story on to your friends.

Source: http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/01/09/facebook-will-not-end-on-march-15th-hoax-news-story-spreads-like-wildfire/