Forged Security Alert Mails Claiming to be From Facebook

Trend Micro security researchers have been warning Facebook users to be careful of scams mails claiming to have come from Facebook while pretending as security warnings.

The infected mails appear to have originated from "Secure Facebook" and come with a subject line of "To Facebook user. (#FIRST_DESCR)." The content states that the recipient's IP address was utilized to log into Facebook more than once and to circulate spam e-mails.

It urges netizens to go through comprehensive statistics regarding their Facebook connections, which are reportedly linked to the e-mail coupled with a firewall program, which is developed by Facebook. Known as "FB IPsecure", the application alleges to restrict unauthentic connections and avert spam from being sent from user's IP.

Trend Micro claims that the spam e-mail message is signed by a Facebook Secure Advisor Garri Moor, and written in poor English.

The attachment enclosed in the spam mail is named as files.zip and carries an executable, which as per Trend Micro, is a type of the Zeus Trojan. The security vendor finds this information stealing Zeus Trojan as TSPY_ZBOT.XXT.

Merianne Polintan an anti-spam Research Engineer with Trend Micro claims that as harmful attachments are a preferable technique of circulating Zeus variants, this is not new. Behavior wise, there is no difference between this specific and other prevalent one, as per the news by blog.trendmicro.com on December 1, 2010.

Further, cases like the one mentioned above indicate that Facebook which is repeatedly trying to make its site secure for users is failing.

Also, Facebook recommended all its users to be wary about opening attachments from unidentified people as they usually are harmful and may infect their systems. Moreover, messages that come from reputed sites like Facebook and has lots of grammatical and spelling mistakes is undoubtedly suspicious.

In addition, everyone using Facebook or any other social networking site on a regular basis must upgrade their antivirus software as they have become a breeding ground for harmful Trojan and viruses.

Related article: FIRST Reveals Staggering Rise in Computer Hacking in China

» SPAMfighter News - 12/14/2010