Security Response

Today sees the highly-anticipated IPO (Initial Public Offering) of the social-networking site Facebook. The IPO is expected to be several times oversubscribed as the demand for shares greatly exceeds the number of shares being issued.

The high-profile nature of this IPO has not escaped the attention of the “419” or the “advance fee fraud” scammers. As a brief reminder, these scams typically promise vast sums of money in exchange for assistance. However, before said sums of money can be received, several increasingly-inventive up-front charges and fees must be paid. The fees keep coming and the promised money never materializes.

We recently spotted a 419 scam message offering a "FACEBOOK (IPO) SUBSCRIPTION PARTNERSHIP PROPOSAL". The use of an all uppercase heading is a common hallmark of such 419 scams.

The scam claims to be sent from a finance firm with offices in multiple locations around the world. The exact nature of the...

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...

Co-Author: Ayub Khan

Phishers regularly introduce new types of fake applications with the motive of improving their chance to harvest user credentials. In February 2012, Symantec observed a phishing site recommending a fake application that allegedly removes “Timeline” profile for Facebook users. The phishing site was hosted on a free web hosting site.

The phishing site embedded the Facebook Timeline promotion video from YouTube, with the claim “Remove Timeline Now”. According to this phishing site, users will have their “Timeline” removed from their Facebook profile and get back their old profile page—only after they enter their login credentials. To make the fake application look more authentic, phishers added that it was protected by an antivirus product with the logo of the antivirus brand placed...

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...