I'm writing this in the hope that the search engines might pick it up. Just today there has been a rash of Facebook status updates saying: "All those using the FAN CHECK APPLICATION please DELETE it and its PICTURES as it contains a virus and takes 24-48 hours to infect everyone on ur friends list! Please copy 2 ur status 2 let everyone know thanx". After looking into it a little is seems that this is a two-pronged hoax attack.
On the one hand there is the normal hoax/timewaster of getting people to blindly re-post every single mention of a new virus. Quite why people (a) blindly re-post these or (b) start them in the first place is beyond me.
However - there seems to be a second element to this particular hoax - if you Google "Facebook Fan Check Virus" then almost all the results will be sending you to what APPEARS to be anti-virus software or online virus checking web sites. These sites themselves have carry a MUCH higher risk than anything Facebook may currently accidently allow. These sites will warn you that your computer has a virus or trojan and ask you to download a cure. DO NOT DO THIS as you WILL become infected with a trojan.
Stick to anti-virus sites and software you know and trust. NOT those thrown up by random Google searching.
There's a little more info here: http://mashable.com/2009/09/07/facebook-fan-check-virus-hoax/
On the one hand there is the normal hoax/timewaster of getting people to blindly re-post every single mention of a new virus. Quite why people (a) blindly re-post these or (b) start them in the first place is beyond me.
However - there seems to be a second element to this particular hoax - if you Google "Facebook Fan Check Virus" then almost all the results will be sending you to what APPEARS to be anti-virus software or online virus checking web sites. These sites themselves have carry a MUCH higher risk than anything Facebook may currently accidently allow. These sites will warn you that your computer has a virus or trojan and ask you to download a cure. DO NOT DO THIS as you WILL become infected with a trojan.
Stick to anti-virus sites and software you know and trust. NOT those thrown up by random Google searching.
There's a little more info here: http://mashable.com/2009/09/07/facebook-fan-check-virus-hoax/
No comments:
Post a Comment