'Likes', 'Forwards' and General Mis-Information

How often do you see something pop up in your Facebook stream asking you to hit like in 5 seconds to see what happens?

Most of the time I'm guessing.

There's also the posts asking you to forward to at least 10 people.

It's all nonsense. Please don't participate.

Often these posts are offensive, and generally just plain wrong. There's nothing that happens if you hit like within a specified time, except generating a post with vast numbers of coverage. It's the chain letter/email syndrome and benefits nobody, especially as most of the posts are totally incorrect in their assertions. 

So firstly, don't be a spammer poster, secondly, don't hit like, don't hit share and generally don't interact with this net garbage.

Please pass this on to all your spammy Facebook friends in the hope that this net clogging rubbish goes away....wishful thinking...

Facebook Goods Spam

There's a new email doing the rounds that appears to come from Facebook.

It's a very convincing email that asks the recipient to 'Get Started' using 'Facebook Goods'

Clicking any of the links within the email will take the recipient to an online Pharmacy page, and potentially download malware to your computer.

DON"T CLICK LINKS IN EMAILS

Dislike Facebook?

There's been plenty of media coverage about the fake Facebook 'Dislike' button.

It's a scam and is not from Facebook.

Do not use it. It will allow a rogue application access to your Facebook account and then send out spam.

"If you do give the app permission to run, it silently updates your Facebook status to promote the link that tricked you in the first place, thus spreading the message virally to your Facebook friends and online contacts," according to a blog post from Sophos' Graham Cluley. "But you still haven't at this point been given a "dislike" Facebook button, and the rogue application requires you to complete an online survey (which makes money for the scammers) before ultimately pointing you to a Firefox browser add-on for a Facebook dislike button developed by FaceMod."

Rogue Facebook apps could steal your data - beware

A new Facebook scam allows apps to steal your data.

DO NOT CLICK A LINK THAT SAYS: 'I'm NEVER texting AGAIN'

Read the article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/jul/07/rogue-facebook-applications

1.5 Million Facebook ID's for sale

Researchers at VeriSign's iDefense group have discovered a hacker offering the login details of over 1.5 million Facebook accounts.

If they are all legitimate, that's equivalent to one in every 300 Facebook users. There's therefore a very good chance that one of those belongs to you.

This highlights how enormously important it is to regularly change your Facebook login password. It can be annoying to have to do that, and trying to remember a difficult password is after all, difficult.

But think of the consequences of not changing your password.

Also think about the ways in which your password might get stolen. The easiest way for a login thief is to target public computers or public wi-fi hotspots.

Don't ever login in to ANYTHING on a public computer in an internet cafe for example. That should be an absolute given, especially if it's logging in to a bank. Don't ever do that in public.

Next, if you can bear it, don't log into anything from a public wi-fi like a Starbucks or an airport, or anywhere where you have no idea who controls the network. If you have a 3G data plan, it's far safer to surf with that when logging in to sites, or if you want to use a free wi-fi, get yourself a VPN. That way all of your data is encrypted and nobody can intercept your data and capture your password. You can use these on a laptop or a mobile phone.

It's quite simple to use a password manager, which can not only generate very robust random passwords, but will remember them for you. The weak link in the chain being that the password you use to get into the password manager must be strong because it's the key to all your saved passwords. We like 1Password on the Mac which also syncs with the iPhone, but there are a number of solutions available. Pick a 'try before you buy' and give it a test drive to see if you like the way it works.

Net security is mostly about common sense. If you know the dangers, you'll be more aware.

Go ahead....change your password now

New Facebook Virus

There has been a lot of activity involving a Facebook hack whereby a user posts a link to a video.

The post looks like this:

"(Persons name) this is the hottest video ever! :P :P :P "

If the user clicks the link, it opens a video which will install a player in Windows and send out the same message to all your friends.

To remove it, change your Facebook password, and delete the app by going to go to Account > Application Settings and delete the HD Video Player. Also delete all the posts it made so that others don't click on it.

It seems as though this may be a vulnerability in the Facebook mobile app, which might allow a malicious interception of data.

If you click the link, you will be asked to download the “FLVDirect.exe“ file. If you do, your computer will become infected and post the message to your Facebook page.

We would also recommend that you download and install Microsoft's Windows Security Essentials, and run a scan.

As ever, we remind you to never click on links that people send in emails or post on social networking websites, especially if the language used doesn't fit the profile of the user that allegedly posted it.

Whole Foods Facebook Scam

Whole Foods Market the American grocers is trying to clamp down on a series of Facebook-based scams that entice users with a purported $500 gift card.

The scam has been spreading virally through Facebook via "fan pages" with names like "Whole Foods Market Free $500 Gift Card Limited - first 12,000 fans only" and "Whole Foods FREE $500 Gift Card! Only Available for 36 hours!" The fan page asks Facebook users to add it as a fan, thus pushing awareness of the page through those users' Facebook networks, and then asks them to fill out a credit assessment and other forms that request personal information. The scam then uses a form of malware to crash users' computers and the information they have entered is left vulnerable.

The scams first emerged on Thursday, Whole Foods spokeswoman Libba Letton said, and though they have been working with Facebook to pull them down, new scams "keep popping up" as they're removed. "Throughout yesterday and this morning, we've been alerting them each time we see new ones, and we take them down," Letton told CNET. She said that if Whole Foods runs contests and gift card giveaways, they will only be orchestrated from the company's own Web site.

Whole Foods has also been using its Twitter account to reply to people who have tweeted about the scam or expressed concerns with it, providing answers like, "It's a scam, unaffiliated and unauthorized by us! Please help us report these pages so Facebook can shut them down." A warning announcement on its Facebook fan page is planned as well.

It's not yet clear who is operating the scams or whether any user information has been compromised.

"Groups and pages that attempt to trick people into taking a certain action or spamming their friends with invites violate our policies, and we have a large team of professional investigators who quickly remove these when we detect them or they're reported to us by our users," a Facebook representative told CNET. "We're working on ways to automate the flagging of these scam groups and pages so we can take action on them even more quickly."

The company recommends that users follow the Facebook Security fan page and report suspected scams when they see them.

(from CNET)

New Facebook email scam

There are reports of a new email scam pretending to be from Facebook, asking users to check their password enclosed in an attachment, because their password has 'been reset' due to a security flaw.

This plays on the current problem of accounts being hacked, meaning the recipients of such emails are more inclined to believe it.

Please alert all your friends on Facebook and help spread the word.

The scam email contains a zipped file that supposedly contains your new password.

What you're clicking on is actually a password stealer program that could steal not only the username and password of your Facebook account, but also details to other accounts such as online banking.

Please remember that Facebook would never send users such emails.

As ever, please be extremely wary of things arriving in your inbox asking you to open an attachment or click on a link.

Be even more suspicious if the grammar isn't right, which thankfully, it often isn't.

Facebook Scam

There's a new Facebook scam that is being sent as a private message from a friends account (now compromised) saying "Did you forget about me?" with a link attached.
Need we remind you not to click links in messages if they look in any way suspicious?
We would always say don't click any links at all that arrive in IM's,emails, tweets etc

There's also another scam on Facebook asking for money to be wired to a friend who has "just been mugged" and had all their money etc stolen. You will normally know this person, and therefore it should be relatively simple to know if this is suspicious, which for the security aware amongst you, it will be.
Safe surfing

Rogue Antivirus 'Security Tool' targets Facebook users

Facebook users are currently being spammed with a bogus email asking them to review their agreement (by downloading an attached file)

We really hope that if you've visited our site, you won't get caught out by what is clearly a fake email.

The email reads as follows:

"Dear Facebook User,

Due to Facebook policy changes, all Facebook users must submit a new, udpated account agreement, regardless of their original account start date.

Accounts that do not submit the updated account agreement by the deadline will have restricted.

Please unzip the attached file and run "agreement.exe" by double clicking it.

Thanks

The Facebook Team"

Firstly anything addressed to Facebook User will be bogus.

Secondly, we really hope you'd be suspicious after being asked to double click an exe file

Thirdly, the use of language within the message is suspect.

If you unzip the file, you'll become the proud owner of a rogue malware anti virus called Security Tool.

Please do not respond to this message if you get it, and pass this post on to all your friends and family.

Please, always be suspicious of such emails.

Safe surfing.......