The applicability of the perfluoro effect to the X-ray spectra (300-800 eV) of unsaturated organic molecules is explored. The Cls and Fls (and 01s where appropriate) oscillator strength spectra of five fluoroethylenes, octafluorocyclopentene, formyl fluoride, carbonyl fluoride, hexafluorobutadiene, trifluoroacetic acid, heduorobutyne-2, hexafluoroacetone, and octatluoronaphthalene were derived from electron impact energy loss spectra recorded under electric-dipole scattering conditions. These spectra are analyzed and compared with those of their perhydro analogs, several of which (naphthalene, acetic acid, butyne-2) are reported for the first time. In unsaturated systems in which all the atoms lie in the molecular plane, such as ethylene, formaldehyde, benzene, etc., perfluorination results in approximately 10 eV shifts of the inner-shell energy loss spectra to higher energies, yet the term values for the Cls-, ln* excitations are shifted by only l eV and often less. In direct contrast, the term values for the equivalent C l s -+ l a * excitations in unsaturated systems having atoms out of the molecular plane, such as butene-2 and acetone, are shifted upward by up to 3 eV upon perfluorination. These different spectral behaviors of planar and nonplanar systems on fluorination quantitatively parallel those which were observed earlier for valence-level ionization potentials (10-20 eV) and attributed to the perfluoro effect. I t is observed for the first time that the Cls+ln* excitation energies in planar hydrocarbons are only very weakly dependent on the spatial extent of the n-electron system. An explanation involving a localized Cls hole is proposed to rationalize this behavior.The perfluoro effect also predicts that excitations to a* MO's will become relatively low-lying in highly fluorinated planar systems. Such low-lying inner-shell excitations induced by fluorination are observed in the fluoroethylene series and in the fluorocarbonyls. When the negative-ion spectra of the fluoroethylenes are assigned in a self-consistent manner, a a* MO is found to drop into the vicinity of In* upon fluorination. A similar intrusion of the lowest dr MO among the n+ MO's is also observed upon fluorinating benzene, while evidence for this in the case of naphthalene is less clear, on account of the complex pattern of multiple Cls-+nn* transitions in this molecule.