Facebook stalkers and profile creeps – rogue apps spread virally

Many Facebook users have contacted the Naked Security team this weekend, reporting that they have fallen victim to a fast-spreading scam that claims you can find out who is stalking you on Facebook and viewing your profile.

Judging by the number of messages posted on the site, the scam spread hard and fast affecting many users. And although Facebook’s security team appears to have been mopping up the mess, and removing the rogue applications and messages, there’s always the chance that it will resurge in a slight different form before too long.

One of the most commonly seen scam messages read:

I just saw who STALKS me on Facebook! You can see who creeps around your profile too! [LINK]

Clicking on the link would take you to a rogue application, that claimed it would tell you who was viewing your Facebook page.

If you approved the subsequent request for the application to be able to access your profile, your own Facebook account would publish the…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

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.