Never Texting Again: Facebook rogue app spreading quickly

Updated Over 290,000 people have in the last few days clicked on a link that is spreading virally across Facebook, claiming to point to a video of someone who died after sending a text message on their cellphone.
The links are being posted on innocent Facebook users’ walls by a rogue application. A typical message posted by the rogue application reads:

I am shocked!!! I’m NEVER texting AGAIN since I found this out. Video here: http://bit.ly/a37TaB – Worldwide scandal!

If you do make the mistake of clicking on the link then you are taken to the rogue Facebook application

The problem is that even though Facebook is warning users that they are giving the “I will never text again after seeing this” application permission to post to their wall (as well as access their personal information) many people are still go ahead and press “allow”.

Why should you ever have to grant an application such permissions in…

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.