A new Facebook button that many of the social network's users have been craving has cropped up and is showing in random status updates urging consumers to get it so they can "dislike" other posts. While it may look tempting -- demand for a 'dislike' option has been surging for a while among the website's 500 million members -- it's a scam, designed to install malicious spyware on consumers' computers and potentially steal their identity, warns the Better Business Bureau.

The button appears alongside a message stating, "I just got the the Dislike button, so now I can dislike all of your dumb posts lol!!" or "Get the official DISLIKE button now", and is followed by a link. Facebook does not have a "dislike" button.

If you click on the link, you will be directed to a bogus "install" page (if the button were real, Facebook would automatically add it to users' profiles). To install it, the scam prompts users to allow the application to run, after which it asks them to complete a survey, the key to obtaining personal information and a trick used in other recent scams.

Given that many Facebook users are young people, the BBB urges parents to educate their children about online scams. While teenagers can be very computer savvy, they are not necessarily knowledgeable about scams.

The agency also warns against clicking on any links disguised as sensational information, even if they appear to come from friends, since salient, attention-grabbing "scoops" are a common technique of online fraudsters.