Scammers Exploit Facebook’s “Total Facebook Views” to Target Members

Facebook the internationally reputed website for social networking is once again being targeted with a malevolent scam wherein the website's application named "My Total Facebook Views" is getting exploited, according to the tmesofindia.indiatimes.com published on January 24, 2011.

The scam that's disseminating through status updates involves one particular web-link that connects to a dubious utility as well as text which states that there are 1245 Facebook views, while suggests that the user can also find the aggregate number of his profile views.

Moreover, running by other monikers Pro Check and ProfileSpy, the malicious software so tries to deceive users of Facebook that they get to hit on a malevolent web-link, which apparently shows the total count of visitors that accessed their profiles. And once that link is hit, a message appears telling the user that he must complete a survey by entering his private details. This, nevertheless, makes his PC susceptible to malicious software, which gets loaded onto his system.

Subsequently, when Facebook was asked to comment, it admitted that the particular data harvesting was occurring on the social media.

Said Facebook, the act brought a member's profile in contact with malware as well as exposed his private details to an entity, which would dispatch him more spam later. The timesofindia.indiatimes.com reported this.

Unfortunately, cyber-criminals are increasingly exploiting social-networking websites like Facebook as their most recent medium for disseminating malware, particularly PC viruses.

Meanwhile, the statistics from Sophos an IT security company further supports the above statement when the company in its 2010 Security Threat Report shows that 40% of people using social networks received cyber-criminals' malware during 2010, accounting for an increase of 90% from the 2009 summer.

Eventually, scammers, hackers, thieves along with other miscreants are targeting Facebook while exploiting an enormous database of about 600m private details, so far as just the number of attacks is concerned. It's therefore recommended that users must act rationally and not post personal information online. That's because it's simply not known as to who is viewing it, meaning that it cannot be said if the viewer is a malicious or well-intended person.

Related article: Scammers Exploit Tax System Resulting in ID Theft

» SPAMfighter News - 2/2/2011