The Facebook "following me" HOAX scaring people

If you're a Facebook user then you will probably have spent hours covertly scrolling through profiles of friends, acquaintances, complete strangers and ex's... You could be innocently keeping up to date with the activities of your loved ones, but there is no doubt the site allows us to indulge our morbid fascination with other people's lives.

And most would be horrified at the thought of people finding out exactly who they have been following.

Which is why the latest hoax doing the rounds has left people in a state of panic, as it explains how to access a list which will reveal your hidden 'followers'.

Or, in other words, people who have been secretly stalking you on the platform.
See: How can I see who follows me on Facebook

According to the rumours, the website will give you the list if you go to the ‘block’ section of the settings and type in ‘following me’.

The myth has recently resurfaced and people are not happy. Unfortunately, this idea is nothing but a ruse - and an old one at that!

Regardless, a message is spreading across the Mark Zuckerberg-founded website - and people are getting frightened.

One user wrote: "I Just learned something new. If you go to account settings, blocking, block users, and type in “following me”, without the quotes, you might be surprised just who is following you. I had a lot people on it that I had no clue who they were. They are blocked now. I had to block them one at a time. Creepy..most were middle eastern. And all my posts are to friends, not public."

Experts have outed the whole thing as nothing but a ruse to scare people, though.

The hoax has done the rounds previously, but is seemingly picking up serious traction this week.

See: Following Me Facebook Latest Hoax

Is there any truth to the 'following me' rumour?

When you type something into the "search bar" on Facebook, it is going to find ANY and ALL pages, people, and/or posts with those words in them.

What you're probably seeing is a list of people with names that include letters from the words "following" and "me."

According to Facebook’s Help Center, you go to the right corner and select settings, then click public posts, then select friends or public next to who can follow me.

Tech experts at ThatsNonsense.com explain: "Why Facebook would implement a feature that would allow users to see their paid stalkers or “covert followers” seems oddly counter-productive, yet this logical flaw hasn’t seemed to stop these rumours from going viral, regularly."

Quite.