'Reset your Facebook password' spam promotes pharmacy websites

Filed Under: Social networks, Spam

One of the most widespread spam campaigns at the moment is posing as a reset password email from Facebook.

Facebook password reset email

The emails use the subject line "Reset your Facebook password" and have no message body. However, they do have an attached file - facebook_newpass.html

If you open the file (which Sophos detects as Troj/JSRedir-BO) you are redirected to a third party website. In our testing, it took us to an all-too-familiar-looking Canadian Pharmacy website selling online drugs.

Right now, these unsolicited messages are being seen en masse around the world by Sophos's network of spamtraps.

Spammed out messages

It's no surprise that the spammers would use Facebook as their cloak - after all, with almost 500 million users it's much more likely that they'll successfully end up in the inbox of a Facebook user than the customer of a particular bank.

Remember to always be suspicious of unsolicited emails, and think before you ever open an unknown attachment or click on an unknown link.

By the way, if you are a regular user of Facebook, you could do a lot worse than join the Sophos page on Facebook - we'll do our best to keep you informed of the latest security threats.

, ,

About the author

Graham Cluley is senior technology consultant at Sophos. The readers of Computer Weekly voted him security blogger of the year in 2009 and 2010, and he pipped Stephen Fry to the title of "Twitter user of the year" too. Which was nice. He was also named "Best Security Blogger" by the readers of SC Magazine in 2011. You can email Graham, subscribe to his updates on Facebook, follow him on Twitter and circle him on Google Plus for regular updates.