A generally harmless but misleading — as well as quite annoying — status update is worming its way through Facebook, imploring contacts to perform a ritual that will supposedly stop strangers from seeing their comments on the sidebar. (It won’t).

This is a variation of what the message says:

Hi, Friends. As you probably know, I like to keep my FB private except to those I am friends with. So if you all would do the following, I’d appreciate it. With the new FB timeline on its way this week for EVERYONE. . . please do both of us a favor:

Hover over my name above. In a few seconds you’ll see a box that says “Subscribed”. Hover over that, then go to “Comments and Likes” and unclick it.

That will stop all our posts showing up on the side bar for strangers to see. But most important, it limits hackers from invading our profiles. If you repost this I will do the same for you. You’ll know I’ve acknowledged you, because if you tell me that you’ve done it, I’ll “like” it.

Facecrooks was on top of the hoax more than a month ago, but enough people think it’s real that users keep re-posting the update.

As the post notes, the most effective way to keep your Facebook actions private is to set your privacy settings to “friends only.”

[Hoax Alert] With the new ‘FB timeline’ on its way…Hover over my name above….(this doesn’t work!) [Facecrooks]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.