Second Phishing Scam Targets Facebook within 24 Hours

Facebook was targeted by yet another phishing attack on April 30, 2009 just after it overcame a previous one that struck it on April 29, 2009.

Reportedly, the second scam include sending of an e-mail to Facebook users seemingly from a 'buddy' whose name appears on their address list, with the subject line "Check this out," along with a link. However, on clicking the link, the gullible user is taken to a phishing site, registered with the domain name 'FBStarter.com.'

At first, the site looks like a genuine web page for logging into Facebook, but in reality it is the creation of spammers who appear very aggressive to capture the passwords and e-mail addresses of Facebook users.

However, the Company while taking preventive action said it blocked www.fbstarter.com so that no one could share it on Facebook, preventing the phishing attack from spreading further. It means if a user is targeted by the attack at any time, he/she wouldn't be sent to the FBStarter.com site.

Additionally, the social network is also issuing fresh 'account passwords' to the users who have been victims of the latest scam. Determining the number of the victims is not easy, as the site has as many as 200 Million members all over the world. In fact, the total number of affected members could count to millions, security analysts said.

Meanwhile, Facebook has started investigation into the situations that triggered the two successive attacks on April 29 and 30, the Company said. However, according to the social network, it was not confirmed if both the strikes were related, since the April 30 phishing scam seemed to have Latvia as the hosting country while the earlier phishing domain referred to a location in Eastern Europe.

In the meantime, talking about the frequency of Facebook attacks, Threat Analyst at Facebook, Ryan McGeehan, stated that phishing attacks were quite a common happening at the site being observed at intervals of only a few weeks, as reported by NETWORKWORLD on April 30, 2009.

Accordingly, Facebook recommended that users should not click on unsolicited or suspicious links, however known the sources might be.

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» SPAMfighter News - 5/7/2009