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Facebook Riddle Giraffe Profile Pictures: Do They Contain Malware Or Hacks? + Answer
A new and strangely interesting phenomenon has recently come to Facebook - users are changing their profile photo to a picture of a giraffe.
The first one, you may not notice. The second one may interest you - by the third you're probably curious as to just why this is happening!
This isn't some kind of hoax, virus or breast cancer awareness message. It's a riddle!
The giraffe image does NOT contain Malware or leave you open to hacking by the Anonymous group. Read on for more info.
The Original Message
Here is the message that has started doing the rounds of Facebook:
"I've changed my profile to a llama. I tried to answer a riddle and got it wrong. Try the great llama challenge!The deal is I give you a riddle. You get it right you get to keep your profile pic. You get it wrong and you change your profile pic to a Llama for the next 3 days. MESSAGE ME ONLY SO YOU DON'T GIVE OUT THE ANSWER.Here is the riddle: 3:00 am, the doorbell rings and you wake up. Unexpected visitors, It's your parents and they are there for breakfast. You have strawberry jam, honey, wine, bread and cheese. What is the first thing you open?Remember... message me only. If you get it right I'll post your name here. If you get it wrong change your profile pic."
Having a llama picture will not get you hacked. This is no different than someone claiming that "Anyone who has painted their fingernails red will get hacked". It's probably safer to have a generic animal as a profile picture than your REAL photo
What Is The Answer To The Riddle
The most common answer that people give is the obvious one - the door!
However this is a trick question, so it's not going to be that simple. Most people claim the answer is - your eyes.
If you hear the sound of someone knocking on your door at 3am, you're most probably asleep. So the first thing that you'll need to open before you do anything else is actually your eyes (or eyelids, if we're being technical).
However, the argument can be made that the correct answer is "the door" because the riddle says "you wake up" so your eyes would already be open. Or that the answer is "your mouth" as you're already awake and you must have already opened the door if your parents are in the house. Another suggestion is that the first thing you'll open is "your inbox" to message the person who posted the riddle!
In reality, the riddle doesn't give us enough information to decide on a definitive answer!
The riddle did the rounds in 2013, using a Giraffe as a profile image. It has also started going around using a Zebra as a profile image. Like all chain messages, it will likely continue to morph - most likely we'll see different animals or different riddles used as people continue to build on the original message.
Does The Llama Image Contain Malware?
No. The viral message is JUST text that says to change the profile image to a llama - any person who uses a llama as their profile image must find their own image, whether that's via another friend's image, a free stock photo site or Google image search (remember that ALL images on Google image search are copyright UNLESS stated otherwise.)
This means that every person who uploads a llama image gets their image from a different place, so there is no chance that the image contains malware, unless every llama image on the entire internet suddenly became infected (that's a joke, by the way).
Is Anonymous Using A Llama To Hack Your Computer?
Another hoax that is doing the rounds claims that Anonymous or another hacking entity will hack any person who has a llama profile photo. This is false, as no hacking group has access to enough information to hack the number of people using the image, let alone their bank accounts or person information.
This is no different than someone claiming that "Anyone who has painted their fingernails red will get hacked". It's probably safer to have a generic animal as a profile picture than your REAL photo. An impossibly large group, from dozens of countries and using many different operating systems and ISPs.
Anonymous is a group that has repeatedly claimed they'll hack Facebook - simply by inviting every hacker to 'have a go' on certain dates. Every date on which they've claimed this will happen has ended in very little happening, other than a few amateur hackers trying to make a scene. The Anonymous group is an unorganised group entity that does not have the power or knowledge to hack users based on a silly viral Facebook riddle.
Hoaxes & Forwarded Messages On Facebook
Most messages that are shared on social media which ask you to share, repost or do any other action, are generally spam. If they promise you anything (such as a donation to a sick child, or some type of prize) chances are that they're simply spam that someone started for a joke.
Some messages have been shared over and over again for a decade or more via emails and then social media - so any information in the message has been distorted from the original or is completely out of date (such as a missing person).
If you're ever unsure of a message's origin, you should always check on Snopes or Hoax Slayer.
The llama riddle message is a relatively harmless joke though, so go ahead and share it and have some fun!