Fake ‘Friend Request’ E-mail from Facebook Delivers Trojan: Cyberoam

According to Cyberoam an IT firm, which recently published a survey report, online scammers are targeting Facebook members by sending them several "friend request" messages for defrauding them into taking down one banker Trojan, published The Times of India on October 19, 2011.

The survey, which Cyberoam conducted, reportedly involved Commtouch another IT security software firm as a partner.

Senior Vice-President of Product Management Abhilash Sonwane at Cyberoam stated that modern scammers along with malware creators knew very well Facebook users' behavioral psychology. They knew that, although intelligent, many users of the social-networking website didn't think again prior to accepting an unknown stranger's 'friend request' e-mail, alternatively answering random such e-mails, hoping they would get gifts and free devices. Online-crooks would constantly tweak their assaults against websites for social-networking exploiting the public's frailties, Sonwane explained. IndiaPRwire reported this on October 19, 2011.

Moreover, Cyberoam as well noticed how free offers through Facebook enticed users that prompted them for disseminating junk e-mails within their friends circle. In addition, the survey discovered an omnipresent "like" button on Facebook that advertising-fraudsters harnessed for enticing end-users into supposedly getting an iPhone 4 for free.

Evidently, the fraudsters gained much out of effective 'free' publicity because of Facebook users' trustworthiness, in addition to potentially acquire their other details from personal profiles to commit ID-theft.

Moreover, spam attachments crafted with "right-to-left" override, deceived people who didn't bother about file extensions on computers running Windows.

In the meantime, the report further revealed that India kept on being on No.1 among the globe's major 'compromised PC' or technically, 'zombie' destinations, while Brazil fell to No.3 rank.

Additionally, according to the report, e-mail-borne viruses revived during Q3-2011 when numerous attacks occurred during August-September 2011. At the peak, however, 25bn malware-laced e-mails were distributed per day.

Meanwhile, users wishing for getting the free iPhone 4 had the message directing them for 'liking' many web-pages, supplying their postal add as well as passing on the 'friend request' e-mail to at least 100 others, thereby making sure the scam proliferated,

Hence, according to the security specialists, social networking members require staying vigilant about these scams.

» SPAMfighter News - 28-10-2011

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