Monday, January 16, 2012
Rosana Olalde
A new form of phishing scam is currently going around Facebook, which not only moves to steal sensitive information from users but takes over their accounts as well, Russian security firm Kaspersky Lab reported recently.
Users are victimized by clicking on a link, which asks them to “re-confirm” their account security, Kasperksy said, leading to a form that requires them to enter sensitive information such as security questions, email password and even their credit card information.
“Last Warning: Your Facebook account will be turned off because someone has reported you. Please do re-confirm your account security by: => http://apps-xxxx-xxxxx-user.de.vu. Thank you. The Facebook Team,” the reported phishing attack said.
Phishing is an approach employed by cyber criminals that involves tricking users to enter sensitive information into what appears to be a legitimate banking or social media website, which turns out to be a very close replication of it.
Once an account is compromised, the anti-virus provider said the cybercriminals would then take over the victim’s account, change its profile picture to the Facebook logo, and turn the name into “Facebook Security.”
It will then send the same message that the victim first received to all of his contacts as a means of spreading the attack to more users.
“These scams are just getting more popular and we really recommend not giving out personal information, especially not email, password and credit card information over social media,” Kaspersky said.
It is worth noting that aside from purchasing virtual money called Facebook Credits, the largest social networking site in the world does not require users to submit credit card information upon signup.
The security firm advised users to carefully check the URL of the site they are entering sensitive information to, in order to make sure that they are giving away these details to a secure and credible entity.
“It is also recommend that you contact your security vendor and the social media vendor if you encounter [such scam] sites,” it added.
Posted in: Facebook
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