Can My Computer Get Infected from Facebook Games?

Written by: Vinny Polston; IT manager of Mach1 PC, LLC.

zynga-farmville-logo-opening-screenThe other day we had a customer drop off their computer that was severely infected; worried about being without her computer. We’ll call her Jane. Jane is retired and when she isn’t playing with her grand children, she is playing Farmville. Jane was concerned because she wasn’t going to be able to maintain her virtual farm. Going through withdrawals from Farmville is no joke -online games are addicting!

Long story short, we had to wipe and reload her computer and it’s working perfect now! She picked up her computer and asked the question, “Can my computer get infected from Facebook games?”. Great question! Good news is that you cannot get infected directly from Facebook games.

According to about.com, Facebook has 500 million accounts with half of those being active daily. That’s 250 MILLION people logging onto Facebook each day. Crazy! Good news is with Facebook being such an authority website, the chances of you getting an infection are slim to none.

However.. The content on Facebook apps, games, & pages aren’t necessarily safe. Will you get an infection directly from a page on Facebook, most likely not. Can you get an infection from clicking on one of those pages and visiting another site? Absolutely.

The story doesn’t end there though. Chances are that you may have search for ‘cheats’ or ‘tips’ for your favorite Facebook game.. be careful.

You see what happens when you search for ‘Farmville cheats’ on Google and start visiting websites you are very vulnerable to getting infected. Online perpetrators are waiting for you to visit their website, that is purposefully infested with malware, to infect your computer.

Be careful whenever you spot something that says, click here to download cheats for ‘insert game name’. You don’t need to be downloading ‘cheats’. If there are legitimate tips online for a game it should be able to be read on their website and not via download. These types of downloads are almost always an infection.

You may get malware, or even spyware from visiting certain websites. You can read our article about the difference between malware and virus to see the difference. Regardless of the type of malware, it can cause your computer to run slow and crash.

Have you already clicked on something that got your computer infected? You might need to have your desktop or laptop checked out. Good news is that we charge absolutely nothing for diagnostics; whereas nearly every other computer store you find will charge anywhere from $25 – $75 for diagnostics. We’ve been doing this for 15 years and always glad to take a free look. Just drop off your computer and we’ll get everything working great in no time!

The other day we had a customer drop off their computer that was severely infected; worried about being without her computer. We’ll call her Jane. Jane is retired and when she isn’t playing with her grand children, she is playing Farmville. Jane was concerned because she wasn’t going to be able to maintain her virtual farm. Going through withdrawals from Farmville is no joke -online games are addicting!

Long story short, we had to wipe and reload her computer and it’s working perfect now! She picked up her computer and asked the question, “Can my computer get infected from Facebook games?”. Great question! Good news is that you cannot get infected directly from Facebook games.

According to about.com, Facebook has 500 million accounts with half of those being active daily. That’s 250 MILLION people logging onto Facebook each day. Crazy! Good news is with Facebook being such an authority website, the chances of you getting an infection are slim to none.

However.. The content on Facebook apps, games, & pages aren’t necessarily safe. Will you get an infection directly from a page on Facebook, most likely not. Can you get an infection from clicking on one of those pages and visiting another site? Absolutely.

The story doesn’t end there though. Chances are that you may have search for ‘cheats’ or ‘tips’ for your favorite Facebook game.. be careful.

You see what happens when you search for ‘Farmville cheats’ on Google and start visiting websites you are very vulnerable to getting infected. Online perpetrators are waiting for you to visit their website, that is purposefully infested with malware, to infect your computer.

Be careful whenever you spot something that says, click here to download cheats for ‘insert game name’. You don’t need to be downloading ‘cheats’. If there are legitimate tips online for a game it should be able to be read on their website and not via download. These types of downloads are almost always an infection.

You may get malware, or even spyware from visiting certain websites. You can read our article about the difference between malware and virus to see the difference. Regardless of the type of malware, it can cause your computer to run slow and crash.

Have you already clicked on something that got your computer infected? You might need to have your desktop or laptop checked out. Good news is that we charge absolutely nothing for diagnostics; whereas nearly every other computer store you find will charge anywhere from $25 – $75 for diagnostics. We’ve been doing this for 15 years and always glad to take a free look. Just drop off your computer and we’ll get everything working great in no time!

About the Author

This website is updated by Vinny Polston, IT Manager of Mach1 PC, LLC. Vinny has been A+ certified since 2008. We have a team of 3 technicians who are very qualified to serve you and fix your computer needs.

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