Beware - Facebook phishing scam

Facebook phishing email

The email, which resembles genuine friend requests, includes the message `Hi, the following person invited you to be their friend on Facebook’ and an invitation to join the social networking site.

Symantec security channel product manager, Robert Pregnell, said the email can be identified as a fake because it has no confirm button and there is no prompt for an email address to sign up to the site.

“At this time we can’t say that this particular email is of a particularly aggressive or high-profile attack,” he said.

According to Pregnell, the emails can be stopped by checking the privacy policy and user account settings on the social networking site. He also advised users to have separate passwords for different accounts and regularly update their internet security.

“Have a different password for each online account and stay updated,” he said. “Make sure your antivirus, internet security, operating system and web browser software is up-to-date.”

“Multi-layered internet security programs offer additional protection with strong, non-obtrusive firewalls, watching for personal details going out of your computer, and for suspicious behaviour, even by legitimate programs on your computer.”

McAfee Asia Pacific chief technology officer, Michael Sentonas, said the Facebook phishing scam is designed to trick the recipient into going through the login process in order to accept the new friend request.

“For the unsuspecting people that do click on this and submit their login information, they may appear to login as they would normally, however, their credentials are almost always sent to the scammer as well,” he said.

He said research conducted by McAfee has shown that as much as 85 per cent of emails in some months are spam, including these types of phishing scams.