With just under two billion users, it should be little wonder that Facebook is a prime target of malware.

This is what we know of the latest one doing the rounds, which has now made its way to SA and seems to be spreading:

Using a series of seemingly legit URL addresses, a recent video spam has left many South African victims unable to get rid of a virus which has spread its venom through Messenger.

A Trojan virus, it starts off as a message in Messenger, sent from someone on your friend’s list, which looks like this – the blank part would be the receiver’s name:

A smiley face? A Bitly link? No worries, let’s click.

You are then directed to a page that has the person who sent it to you’s profile pic in full, with a “play” button over it. The URL in the address bar is a docs.google.com link so again, that means it must be legit, right?

Well, no. Clicking the play button is where things get dark.

Directed to a page like the one below, you might notice one too many variables that look a little weird – from a sloppy URL address, to an obvious fake YouTube page, here’s what you will see:

Waiting for the page to load and, bam, you are infected. Before you know it you are sending messages like the one above to your friend list.

Talk about awkward. I mean, how could you fall for such a scam? Your mind must be elsewhere, right?

But what’s the point of it?

Well, according to Good Things Guy, these type of Facebook Trojans “operate on the botnet principle, and they can quickly become very massive with their primary purpose to steal your information,” including:

• IP and other System Info
• Facebook account information
• Browsing history
• E-mail accounts and other passwords

And how do you get rid of the malware? Here are a few steps:

• If you receive one of these messages, DO NOT OPEN it and inform the friend who appeared to send the video that their account has been hacked.
• If you do find that your Facebook profile has been compromised by the scam, you need to secure your account as soon as possible.
• Be sure to change your password and run an activity check to spot any suspicious activity on your page.
• You can also remove any downloaded malware by going into Facebook Settings & Apps, Websites and Plugins & Select Disable to protect your account from unauthorised access of third party apps.
• While you’re there, take a moment to look at all the apps connected to your Facebook and remove any that are outdated or unnecessary.
• It is also recommended to run any anti-virus or malware programs to rid your device of any bugs that may have been downloaded to your system as a result of the download.

No doubt that’s valuable information up there, so bookmark this article for the future, because, as Information Security specialists like to say, it’s not “if” you’re going to get hacked, it’s “when” – and we know Facebook scams are only set to get more and more sneaky.

[source: goodthingsguy]