Last year, we talked about scams and spam circulating on Facebook in our whitepaper. Social networking scammers often reuse common lures to trick users, such as offering free products or additional features that are not available on their network of choice. What these scammers do differently is find new ways to get more eyeballs to view their specific links. Whether it is likejacking or even convincing users to paste code (an external JavaScript file) into the browser address bar, these scammers are relentless.

Just recently, we published a blog about the Facebook Black scam that has been spreading. While that scam continued to spread, we found two old lures being reused,...

Contributor: Avdhoot Patil

Fake social media applications in phishing sites are not uncommon. Phishers continue to devise new fake apps for the purpose of harvesting confidential information. In December 2012, a phishing site (spoofing Facebook) claimed to have an application to secure Facebook accounts from being hacked. The phishing site was hosted on a free Web-hosting site.

The phishing site required users to enter their Facebook login credentials to gain access to the fake security app. In addition to their Facebook login credentials, users must enter a confirmation code generated by clicking a button. Phishers likely believe asking users to enter a confirmation code and stating that it is certified while displaying a fake Facebook stock certificate will make this fake app page seem more authentic. Still, it is hard to understand how a sample stock certificate has any relevance to security on Facebook.
 

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It was the best of posts, it was the worst of posts. My apologies to Charles Dickens, but it seems to be the best way to describe two themes I see on Facebook wall posts these days. Let me show you some of the worst ones first:

Yes; these are scams. Posted as legitimate messaging on Facebook user’s walls by bad guys. Blaming Facebook for scams is a little like blaming Al Gore for malware on the Internet. Even if Mr. Gore did invent the Internet, he certainly didn’t invite all those malware authors to join up. I addressed the attraction of Facebook to bad guys some time ago. Here’s the short version: malware authors target people, not computers. Lots of people are on Facebook; malware authors follow.

It all seems like bad news, doesn’t...

Recently, I came across a scam email that is trying to take advantage of the hype surrounding the yet-to-be-released iPad 3. The release date of the iPad 3 is still unknown but spammers are already jumping on the bandwagon in the hope of scamming people who will be eager to get their hands on one of these devices.

The scammers introduce themselves as Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook. The email then states how Facebook have joined up with Apple for a one time promotion – to give away an iPad 3 at no cost. This is, of course, all false information but the scam attempts to entice potential victims by stating how they have been randomly selected from a Facebook database. It is possible that a user could potentially be deceived by this ruse if they receive this email to the email address they have used to register with Facebook.

The user is then asked to click on a link and fill out a survey. The goal of the scammers here is to obtain personal information from...