Phishing Scam Again Surrounds Facebook Community

Users of the popular networking site Facebook were found to have struck by a latest e-mail phishing scam on May 14, 2009.

Some of the Facebook users may have unknowingly clicked a fake link given in a message purportedly from Facebook. The users who clicked the phony link were redirected from the legitimate Facebook site to a spoof Facebook site. There they were told to login for one more time by giving their password, which the phishers might have captured.

One of the phishing e-mail's version read like: "Richard sent you a message. Subject: Hello. "Check 121.im", where 121.im was provided as a web link. Additionally, www.123.im and www.151.im may also be the fake domains.

According to the security team of Facebook, the intention of hackers was to gather confidential credentials of a large number of people and then put their hacked accounts into use sometime later for circulating bogus pharma products and other items to the members of Facebook.

The spokesman of the company, Barry Schnitt, stated that the circulation of phishing e-mails with phony link was blocked in just few hours these e-mails started spreading. Moreover, the passwords of the users who fell for the scam re-set automatically, thereby making the data captured by the criminals useless in a little time, as reported by msnbc on May 14, 2009.

Security experts highlighted that Facebook has always remained the prime target of cyber crooks and consequently, the site has always remained in news. Online threats like phishing apparently hit the Facebook in every one or two weeks. Also, the level of nuisance of these scams to abuse the messaging system of Facebook has gone up substantially. Amid this, the question - whether or not the company is making any effective effort to curb such attacks before they expand to furious level - seems quite inevitable.

In 2008 also, hackers launched a phishing assault, by means of which they circulated Koobface, a malicious virus. When Facebook users clicked a fake link, which purported to be sent by a Facebook friend, the virus got downloaded onto their PCs.

Related article: Phishing With A Redirector Code

» SPAMfighter News - 5/28/2009