Facebook: How to prevent spam – top tips

To prevent spam on Facebook, adjust your privacy settings, block unwanted users and restrict third-party apps.

How to prevent spam on Facebook: Remove third-party apps

Removing third-party apps reduces the risk of unwanted access to your data and prevents these apps from posting or spamming on your behalf. Here’s how to do it:

• To prevent spam, open the Facebook app on your phone and tap the three bars (menu icon) in the bottom-right corner.

• Scroll down and select “Settings and Privacy.” Then tap “Settings.”

• Scroll down to the “Permissions” section and select “Apps and Websites”.

• In the “Logged in with Facebook” section, you will see all the applications and services linked to your Facebook account.

• Tap the desired app you want to remove. Scroll down and press “Remove”. Confirm the deletion. Repeat this process for all unwanted apps.

• To prevent future links, you can disable the “Apps, websites and games” option under “Preferences”.

Spam in Facebook groups

There are many fake accounts on Facebook that post dubious credit offers in groups. To prevent this spam, you should change the settings in your own groups or ask the group administrator to do so:

• Go to the desired group using the left column.

• Go to the group settings.

• Here you can either decide who can post something in the group or who has access to it at all. It’s best to manually approve each member. This way you won’t have any uninvited members.

Restricting friend requests: how to do it

To prevent spam in the form of unwanted friend requests on Facebook, you can adjust your account settings.

• Log in to your Facebook account.

• Click on the small arrow in the upper right corner of the screen. Select “Settings and Privacy” and then “Settings”.

• Click on “Privacy” in the left menu. Find the section “How you are found and contacted”.

• Find the section titled “Who can send you friend requests?” and click “Edit.” Select the “Friends of friends” option. This will allow only people who are already connected to your friends to send you friend requests.

Report inappropriate content

To report inappropriate content on Facebook, follow these steps:

• Log in to your Facebook account and navigate to the content you want to report.

• Click on the three dots (⋯) in the upper right corner of the post or comment. Select “Report post” from the drop-down menu.

• Select the reason why you are reporting the content (e.g. hate speech, harassment, violence or other inappropriate content). Follow the on-screen instructions to complete your report.

• After you submit the report, Facebook will review the content. The person who created the post will not see that you have reported it.