Is a Facebook security hole helping hackers spread iPhone 4 spam?

Graham Cluley
@gcluley

Is a security weakness on Facebook allowing cybercriminals to post spam messages directly onto users’ walls?

Overnight, a number of users have been seen posting messages like the following on their Facebook
walls:

Apple is giving away 1000 Iphone4s i just got mines =)

Of course, Apple isn’t really giving away 1000 iPhone 4 smartphones, and clicking on the link takes you to a website which promotes a “make money fast” scheme, attempting to recruit home workers.

Tempted? I didn’t think you would be. But maybe some users in these cash-strapped times would be interested in discovering how they could make some extra pennies.

Even if you aren’t interested, you’ll find that the webpage is pretty determined for you not to leave without signing-up..

What’s particularly interesting is that this latest wave of spam messages say they were posted “via Email”.

That’s the facility Facebook supplies to post status updates to your Facebook page…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, on Mastodon at @[email protected], or drop him an email.

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