Malicious Messages on Facebook

Some people have received a message on Facebook with the following title:

You look just awesome in this new movie

The message also has a link you can click on. When you click on the link it takes you to a page that looks like a video site, with a title similar to "Secret video by Tom". The page shows an error message asking you to download something to view the video.

If you proceed and click on the download link it downloads (a malicious) file to your computer.

If you continue and install the file it downloads it gives you another error message saying that it didn’t work. What it actually does is install malware on your computer.

By this stage most people wouldn’t suspect that they just downloaded and installed malware, with all the error messages they’ll probably give up and forget about the whole thing.

The malware sits quietly on your PC and when you’re searching for using normal web sites such as Google or Yahoo it then takes you to other malicious sites that install further viruses on your PC. This way you’ll always be installing more and more viruses without realising where they all originate from.

What can you do?

If you get spam in Facebook don’t click on the links. Delete the message.

Don’t fall for tricks such as secret videos of you. They’re designed to pique your interest and encourage you to click on the link provided.

Use a good antivirus package that filters out malicious web pages.

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