Visit the New Facebook scare spreads on Facebook

Warnings are being posted across Facebook, warning users to beware messages from friends that invite them to “Visit the New Facebook”.

Although these messages are being shared by Facebook users with the best of intentions, the warning about the risk of being locked out of your own Facebook account may in fact be more of a nuisance than the alleged hacker attack itself.

Here’s a typical message seen on Facebook:

PLEASE RE-POST FOR EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!THIS NOTICE IS DIRECTED TO EVERYONE WHO HAS A PAGE ON FACEBOOK: IF SOME PEOPLE IN YOUR PROFILE OR YOUR FRIENDS SEND YOU A LINK WITH WORDS “VISIT THE NEW FACEBOOK ‘ DO NOT OPEN! IF YOU OPEN IT YOU CAN SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR PAGE. IT’S A HACKER WHO STEALS YOUR DETAILS AND REMOVES YOU FROM YOUR OWN PAGE. COPY AND SPREAD THE WORD

However, Sophos researchers have found no evidence that the threat is real. We simply haven’t managed to uncover any reports of any users hit by such an attack.

As such, it appears…

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.