Spam Mails Supposedly from Friends/Family Inundate Facebook Users

Recently social networking people have been getting messages that seemingly arrived from friends on the popular social site Facebook, however, the e-mails really displayed an unknown id inside their reply spaces; thus published nbcnews.com dated September 7, 2012.

Actually, according to Facebook, the just mentioned fresh form of spear-phishing electronic mails come from family members or close friends, exhibit the target person's first name either inside their message body or subject line, followed with providing one web-link that leads onto one truly spammers-controlled website. The e-mails take advantage of users' inclination towards clicking even unknown web-links provided they are sent from friends who are usually trustworthy.

Indeed, Facebook explains that one briefly-timed incorrect configuration on the website let certain spammers to graze openly declared details from members' contact id lists. The details were then utilized along with numerous hijacked e-mail accounts towards dispatching bulk spam mails.

Moreover, one Spokesperson of Facebook stated that the company's engineers of late found the above single separated e-mail scam on the social network following which the grazing protections had been improved to safeguard users from the current as also similar other future assaults. Nbcnews.com published this.

Elsewhere the Spokesperson added that clearly there wasn't any bulk hijacking of Facebook user-accounts as also no exposure of private data. CNet published this on September 6, 2012.

Remarking about the latest spam mail campaign, which though has been rectified, Chief Research Officer Johannes Ullrich from the reputed US-located Internet Security Training firm the SANS Institute stated that during the past few weeks, there had been a rush of spam assaults based on information gathered from social-networking websites. Such assaults were now easier to automate unlike previously, the expert added. Forbes.com published this during the end-week of August 2012.

Ullrich explained that in social networks, where millions of people used the identical platform, it became rather simple for digging at personal information. Meanwhile, the obfuscating privacy configurations by Facebook further aided the process. And though the configurations had been enhanced yet many users didn't understand as to what they revealed as also whom they revealed their information, the specialist concluded.

Related article: Spam Scam Bags a Scottish Connection

» SPAMfighter News - 9/18/2012