My 1st [email protected] scam hits Facebook users hard, spreads virally

Thousands upon thousands of Facebook users have been hit by a new survey scam spreading virally across the social network.

Messages claiming to be users’ first ever Facebook status updates are being posted on users’ walls by a rogue application, designed to earn revenue for the scammers behind the attack.

Here’s what some typical messages look like:

My 1st [email protected] was: “[random message]”. This was posted on [random date]

Find your 1st [email protected] @ [LINK]

Other versions read:

My 1st status was: ‘[random message]’ Posted on [random date]

Find out what your 1st status is at [LINK]

If you click on the link you are taken to a rogue Facebook application, which asks you to give it permission to access your profile, which includes giving it the ability to post from your account in your name.

Sadly, many people are all too quick to give permissions to rogue applications like this free reign to…

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.