New (old) Facebook Scam

There is another Facebook scam out there that uses the old “how many people have viewed your Facebook page” ploy. It asks you to take a short survey and give it access to your information. It will then steal your information (and probably sell it to spammers) and will open you up (until you change your password) to all sorts of “friends”. Read about it here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/21/my-total-facebook-views-scam_n_812410.html

There are no apps that can offer you this kind of information about who views your profile, don’t fall for it!!!

Patriot Act/FDIC Phishing Scan

Another phishing scam…this time supposedly coming from the FDIC telling you your bank account has been suspended (or some other action) that violates the Patriot Act. It then directs you to a web site that probably will either download malware/viruses to your computer or will steal your personal data. Don’t fall for these scams, just trash the emails. The two links below describe the scam.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/216644/patriot_act_phishing_emails_resurface_fdic_warns.html?tk=rss_news

http://www.fdic.gov/news/news/SpecialAlert/2011/sa11010.html

Facebook Picture Chat Virus

There is a new virus out that can infect your computer from the chat function in your Facebook photo album. The virus uses a link in the photo chat function that downloads malicious software. The best advice is that if you come across an embedded link/picture/website that you can click in a picture, DON’T GO THERE! This is one of the latest in tricks that hackers are using social networks like Facebook to attack and get control of computers.

Here is more information:

http://isc.sans.edu/diary.html?storyid=10246

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/10/facebook_worm_photo_chat_scam/

Remember, almost all hacking done today is all about money-stealing yours or somebody elses. The way they do that is to keep your computer working and connected to the Internet. There are very few viruses today that damage your computer and make it unusable. Also, most viruses now come from the Internet and not from email. Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Myspace are also especially vulnerable to having attacks planted in them. And any web site can be infected (Yes, Google, Yahoo, Bing, anyone!), not just the “questionable” ones. When you are surfing the Internet you should pay attention to how your computer is acting-Does it suddenly slow down and stay slow? Does Internet Explorer (or whatever browser you use to surf) lock up/crash often? Do web pages you normally surf load slowly or not at all?

The best thing to do to protect yourself is to make sure all of your programs (anti-virus, operating system (Windows), browser (Internet Explorer), media players (Flash, Windows, Quicktime, iTunes), Adobe Reader, etc, etc, etc) are updated and that they are set to update automatically. This means you should not ignore the little yellow shield, the red shield with the big “X” or any other new or unusual icon that shows up in the lower right corner of your screen. Hackers look for ways to get into your computer 24/7/365+! When they find a weakness, they will exploit it. When software companies find out about these weaknesses they send updates to fix them. That is what those little yellow shields and other icons are all about. Do not ignore them!

I am not agaist using Facebook, Twitter, etc-they are fun and great new ways to communicate and express ourselves. Be wary if you see something new that isn’t announced or wasn’t there before.