Facebook Spam Scam...

May 2009

Facebook targeted in spam scam. The popular social networking site Facebook successfully fought off an attack from a piece of malware on April 30, the second attack this week. Facebook, which claims 200 million users, said the phishing scam tricked users into clicking on a link in the messages inbox that took them to a false Facebook Website here cyber-criminals were able to access their login information. The company said on April 30 it was able to shut down the two malicious links at the core of the attack, fbstarter.com and fbaction.net. Facebook said it is also in the process of removing messages that refer to the link, which tricks users with the message “Look at this!” as well as resetting passwords for affected members. The April 29 attack, a similar worm, directed users to the site BAction.net. In the wake of the attacks, Facebook and brand protection firm MarkMonitor announced that Facebook is using MarkMonitor’s AntiFraud Solutions to supplement Facebook’s own in-house security efforts in protecting users against malware attacks. Facebook, which already uses MarkMonitor AntiFraud Solutions to help combat phishing attacks, is expanding its use of MarkMonitor to further protect Facebook and its users from ongoing malware attacks. A Facebook threat analyst said the company’s deep commitment to the safety of its millions of users requires a strong, proactive security strategy, best-of-breed technology and active engagement with industry leaders. “MarkMonitor demonstrated that it understood the complexity of the phishing issue we were facing so it was a natural next step for us to bolster our own security systems with their anti-malware solution,” he said.