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Bogus Emails Appear to be Coming from Facebook

These days, one can easily find in one's inbox the daunting posts which appear to be coming from social networking website Facebook, according to a Softpedia report dated November 23, 2011.

One such ridiculous email may warn the recipient that his account has debased the Facebook policies and the id will be deactivated within a day if he does not conform to the rules again. For giving a genuine look to the email, words, such as 'Thanks' and 'The Facebook Team' are used. A link is also given at the end for the reconfirmation.

The web link takes the user to a webpage which looks similar to the authentic Facebook page. The multi-page form asks the user (victim) to give details, such as email id, password, security question and its answer, and credit card number.

The con has been spotted by security firm Sophos. According to security experts, data given by the victim is misused by the scammers for taking control of his actual Facebook account. They may also use the victim's contacts for circulating their con messages further.

Likewise, they can also seize the victim's email account and make use of it for sending further spam posts. They can also lock and misuse accounts by altering ids and passwords.

They may also bring into play the credit card information which they have stolen. Through this, they can dig out the victim's financial information for carrying out more frauds, the security experts warn.

Such a trick on Facebook has not spread for the first time. In February 2011, a related scam went off wherein the users were asked to reconfirm details to avoid account closure.

The experts said these kinds of scams are quite common, and may prove fatal. The scammers can use the victims' credentials to move money from their bank accounts or steal identity.

According to Lisa Vaas from Sophos, these types of phishing scams are designed to grab the raw details from a compromised system. But at the utmost urgency, one should always remember that no social networking site do make such kind of compliance (requests for personal data online), as reported in Sophos Naked Security on November 23, 2011.

Related article: Bugs Swell In Browsers in 2006

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