As Facebook users attempt to solve a popular new riddle that's been circulating the social media site, many been changing their profile pictures to a photo of giraffe, confusing their Facebook friends and causing some to worry that the "gamemakers" have malicious hacking motives.
The game revolves around the following riddle: "It's 3am, the doorbell rings and you wake up. Unexpected visitors! It's your parents and they are here for breakfast. You have strawberry jam, honey, wine, bread and cheese. What is the first thing you open?"
Users who fail the challenge and guess the incorrect answer must change their profile picture to a photo of a giraffe for three days before re-posting the game and asking their friends to send them a private message with the answer, the Telegraph reports.
The trendy quiz game has quickly gone viral as more and more people now have giraffes as their profile pictures, and while many see it as a fun and harmless way to interact on Facebook, others fear it may actually be a hoax designed by Anonymous to hack computers and accounts via vulnerable JPEG images.
Hoax-Slayer, however, contests that such claims are "utter nonsense," writing, "even Anonymous cannot access your computer and bank account just because you have a giraffe image as your profile. That claim is simply ridiculous. This silly hoax is circulating at the same time as another - equally false - hoax that claims that the giraffe profile pictures harbor malware."
"The 'giraffe challenge' is a harmless game in which users who cannot correctly answer a riddle are instructed to change their Facebook profile picture to that of a giraffe for three days. The game was certainly not set up by Anonymous," Hoax-Slayer writes.
Softpedia agrees, pointing out that an alleged word of warning from James Thompson, chief technical officer for SANS' Internet Storm Center, claiming that the game is malicious, is false, as the name of the chief technology officer for SANS' Internet Storm Center is actually Johannes Ullrich, and the quote seems to have been doctored to stir up a widespread panic.
However, Hoax-Slayer also points out that you should always exercise caution online by using anti-malware software and refraining from downloading any suspicious content.
As for the answer to the riddle, it's likely, "the front door."
