Facebook hoaxes and scams

Facebook is a dangerous place to be, these days: it’s become the natural home for a convergence of old-fashioned “make you look like a gullible idiot” hoaxes and out-and-out scams, with a strong dash of stuff you really don’t want to be part of like affiliate spam. Here are a few links you might find useful in terms of finding more about Facebook graffiti…

Here’s a blog by Gary Warner on Facebook and phishing: PhacePhish: New Facebook Attack gives a One-Two Punch

Here’s an article I put up at ESET about (among other things) the “researcher” who made sure the data of 100 million or so incautious Facebook users were available in easily searchable form to anyone who cared to download it: Facebook Losing More Than Face. My Spanish colleague Josep Albors also had something to say on that – Incidents on Facebook – and so did my ESET LLC colleague Tasneem Patanwala: Facebook Data Theft?? or an Eye Opener. ESET summarized that first blog and added some tips for staying safe here: After Facebook leak, ESET advises computer users how to keep safe on social networks

Here’s a post by Graham Cluley on a hoax spreading through Facebook: Girl who killed herself virus hoax spreads on Facebook. And here’s a link to the Sophos Facebook page which is pretty good on this sort of stuff: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sophos/28552295016.

Here’s a long article from How to Save Face: 6 Tips for Safer Facebooking from Jason at F-Secure (some other good articles on that site, too).

Randy Abrams posted some survey data about social media and security –You’re So Vain… – and revisited the Facebook data issue, discussing who was actually downloading the file Ron Bowes made public – Who is Downloading the Facebook Data? and followed up with another hoax/scam report: Is Facebook Making a Funny Face?

David Harley CITP FBCS CISSP
ESET Senior Research Fellow