New Gifts For You virus warning spreads on Facebook

Graham Cluley
Graham Cluley
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Many Facebook messages are spreading a warning to each other about a “virus” which is said to be spreading via the social networking system.

A typical message reads:

THERE IS A VIRUS GOING THROUGH OUR COMMENTS. IT WILL START SENDING LINKS IN YOUR NAME. IT SAYS “I KNOW YOU WILL LIKE THIS” OR “LOOKING FOR SOME FUN”. THEN IT HAS A PAGE LINK SAYING “NEW GIFTS FOR YOU”. DO NOT OPEN THIS LINK. THEY ARE POPPING UP EVERYWHERE!! PLEASE COPY and put on your status and HELP WARN those in your circle!!

There are plenty of folks raising awareness of the so-called “New Gifts For You” virus, but so far I haven’t seen any evidence that the threat actually exists.

It’s possible that this is just a scare that has got out of hand – with users spreading a well-intentioned warning to each other based upon a rogue application that has long been shut down by the-powers-that-be at Facebook.

As such, it could be argued that the warning is now a bigger problem (and…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity 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 analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, or drop him an email.

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