Facebook warns of recent wave of spam

NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook said Wednesday that it has stopped most of the spam that has flooded many users' pages with pictures showing graphic sex and violence.

The social-networking company urged its 800 million-plus users to remain vigilant to keep their accounts from being hijacked.

Social-networking sites are popular targets for spammers because people are more likely to trust and share content that comes from their "friends." This makes spam, scams and viruses easier to spread.

Although the way the latest spam messages spread isn't new, their content — jarring violence and graphic pornography rather than links to get a free iPod shuffle — might have upset users more than usual. In recent days, they have complained on Twitter and their own Facebook pages.

Facebook said no user data or accounts were compromised during the attack.

The latest attack tricked users into pasting and malicious links into the address bars in their Web browsers. This exploited a browser vulnerability that caused them to unknowingly share the graphic content with their Facebook friends.

The content spreads further when the friends then click on these links, thinking that it was posted by the user on purpose.

The company said users should never cut and paste unknown code into a browser's address bar. They should always use an up-to-date browser and report any suspicious content on the site.

Facebook did not immediately say which browsers were affected

Facebook said it built enforcement mechanisms to quickly shut down the malicious pages and accounts that attempt to exploit the vulnerability.

"Our team responded quickly and we have eliminated most of the spam caused by this attack," Facebook said in a statement. "We are now working to improve our systems to better defend against similar attacks in the future."

Facebook already scans links against security databases and blocks those known to lead to spam. But the company says spammers can get around those protections by tricking users into pasting harmful links directly into Web browsers.

The company says fewer than 5 percent of its users experience spam on a given day, and less than 4 percent of content shared on Facebook is spam.

Source: The Associated Press

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Facebook spam virus bombarding users with graphic images

Facebook users, beware: There is a nasty virus quickly spreading across the social network that floods accounts with gruesome images of bestiality, hardcore pornography, self-mutilation and a variety of other very-NSFW pictures, reports Emil Protalinski at ZDnet. Facebook has confirmed the presence of the virus, and says it is currently investigating the matter.

"Facebook is aware of these reports and we are investigating the issue," said a Facebook spokesperson in a statement.

According to The Christian Post, which first reported the virus, the nasty cyber attack maybe be the work of Anonymous, whose members have previously vowed to launch an attack on the social network as retribution for "selling information to government agencies and giving clandestine access to information security firms so that they can spy on people from all around the world." The involvement of Anonymous is so far unconfirmed.

While we have not yet been exposed to the spam virus ourselves, others say the problem is rampant. Actress Courtney Zito tells The Christian Post, "I have 5000 friends. My feed is littered with porn. I can't even check my news feed with anyone around because of it."

Other users have taken to Twitter to report their exposure to the virus, which appears to spam users' friends with the violent and pornographic images after they click on a malicious link.

"What is all the crap on Facebook now?" writes Twitter users @_Ms_Ash. "I can't even go on there without seeing porn or gory violence. Its disgusting."

"Yep looks to me like facebook has been hacked on some level," writes Twitter user @SMASHGORDON_FTW. "[M]Y entire news feed is filled with violence and porn."

Here are instructions for what to do if your account is hacked by this virus. (You must be logged in to Facebook to view this link.)

Source: Digital Trends

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Latest Problem occuring to Facebook users

From the GMT+6 Zone, Some of the Bangladeshi users are getting problem when they are using Facebook from their Opera Mini Browser. To ensure that problem When I wrote an Status about it we found that not only in this zone, but also Users who are using from other countries, they are also having that same problem! It is Showing May be the HTML version of Facebook, Only the Facebook Logo is Colorful on their but others are Totally Looks like Simple HTML work. But it is badly true that now it is making Problem for the Users. Some of the users are in fear that "Are they hacked or not"? But the Main problem is what we don't know. Some are thinking Hacked, Some are thinking New Layout problem, Some are thinking about the New Integration problem. But we are still haven't Find the Proper Cause!  

We know that Facebook is now became most Browsed or Searched website of the world. But Facebook should inform about this knid of problem what ever is occuring as huge and big problem. And from some months we are watching that Facebook is not anymore being User Friendly! Thay are blocking News Websites, isn't taking proper action against Sex Scam & Scam Application, Limited Friend Request Sending Systems etc. Their new Messaging systems is also occuring problem to users. And users are upset about that to. They are now not in Social Networking market Place, but they are moving to do business. We think Facebook should think about their users who are using from all over the world. If they provide good service to their users, then users also will support as much as they can.

Source: BAG Desk

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Facebook sex scam targets young girls by using fake online modelling agencies

Police have uncovered an online paedophile plot encouraging young girls to send indecent photographs of themselves to bogus modelling agencies.

Perverts posing as talent spotters created profiles on social networking websites, mainly Facebook, to exploit youngsters' dreams of making it as models, Leicestershire police said yesterday.

The conspiracy was uncovered when several parents discovered their daughters had been corresponding with the people behind the sites. The teenagers – the youngest of whom was 13 – had been groomed to the point where they were being asked to submit photographs of themselves in their underwear.

None of the children known to police sent pictures and instead alerted their families, but officers said they could not be sure whether others had been duped into sending pictures of themselves.

Detectives believe that the websites might have been created in Leicestershire because some of them purported to be those of reputable local companies, including Leicester's Pat Keeling Modelling Agency.

Pat Keeling, whose company name and logo were used on one of the sites, said: "We would never approach people we do not know – people approach us.

"If someone is interested in modelling then they should visit a reputable modelling agency and have a face-to-face chat.

"We do not use social networking sites to contact people."

A Leicester mum, whose 15-year-old daughter raised the alarm after she was asked to send photographs of herself in her underwear, said: "She got a message on her Facebook page which said 'you don't know me, but I work for the Pat Keeling Modelling Agency and we've got loads of work for models at the moment'.

"It asked her to send pictures of herself in swimwear and underwear. She's a smart girl and she knew something was wrong straight away and came to me. I'm proud of her."

Police are working with Facebook to close the pages down and to trace the person or people who created them.

But they warned that other sites could spring up.

Detective Sergeant Ed Jones, of Leicestershire police's paedophile online investigation team, said: "We want to make sure people are not fooled by this any longer.

"There is a suggestion it is local because of the names of the agencies used, but that is all under investigation.

"Do not be fooled – a reputable modelling agency would never approach you in this way.

"Do not post pictures online of yourself posing in your underwear. When posting photos on the internet, you have no control where they may end up and they could appear on the internet forever."

A Facebook spokesman said the site, which has 500 million users worldwide, was working with Leicestershire police.

He said: "Unfortunately there will always be malicious people who try to fool people, both online and offline.

"Just as you should check if someone 'scouting' you in a shopping centre really is a legitimate model agent, you should also use the same caution on Facebook.

"We encourage people using Facebook to think carefully before they add a new friend and check that the person is who they claim to be and not to add or accept friend requests from people they don't know.

"It's against Facebook's rules to use a fake name or operate under a false identity.

"We provide our users with the tools to report anyone they think is doing this via report links on every page of our site and we strongly recommend their use."

The Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre said it believed the people behind the scam had a sexual interest in children and warned that such individuals would use a variety of methods to make contact with youngsters.

For information about safe internet use, visit:


www.ceop.police.uk

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