Sophos Cloud Optix
Last week I explained how scammers are spreading rogue applications virally over Facebook, pretending to offer you the ability to either see who has been viewing your profile, or count how many views your Facebook profile has received.
I’m afraid that the scams continue to affect Facebook users at a tremendous rate – and the security team at Facebook don’t appear to have been able to stamp it out. Here’s a YouTube video where I show the scam in action:
So, the onus is on Facebook users to be smarter about which links they click on. When I followed one of the links from a Facebook test account I created, it took me to a page which tried to lure me with the offer of a white iPhone. All I had to do was enter my mobile phone number (and thus sign myself up for an expensive premium rate service).
Messages used in the campaign include:
WOW My profile views are : 82629
Girls Views : 32981
Boys Views : 49648
Check yours at - [LINK]
My total facebook views are: 5126
Find out your total profile views @ [LINK]
Now You can see who is watching Your profile! Use this App and check !
[LINK]
OMG!! I didnt believe you could see whos been looking at your profile but it actually works, I now know exactly who has been looking at my pictures Check it out here: @ [LINK]
(Note that the view count numbers used in some of the above messages appear to be random – so you may encounter different examples)
If were hit by this scam and are struggling to clean-up your Facebook profile, here’s a YouTube video I made which describes what steps you need to take:
(Enjoy this video? You can check out more on the SophosLabs YouTube channel and subscribe if you like)
Make sure that you stay informed about the latest scams spreading fast across Facebook and other internet attacks. Join the Sophos Facebook page, where more than 50,000 people regularly share information on threats and discuss the latest security news.
Interesting video in the story. I am wondering which screen capture tool you're using to create the video. I'm posting this story, as I have several others, to MY FB page. I like the fake MZ page as well. Very nice touch making him a "king". I'm sure if he saw it, it'd feed his ego quite nicely. 😉
I used iShowU HD Pro to capture the video footage. It's a neat program that works well, and we use it for many of the videos we make on Naked Security.
so, if i fell for it, and gave them my number, would they send me my chosen phone that i could just put a new sim card in?
Unfortunately, I was a victim of this scam. I'm sure most of us are very interested to know who are viewing our profile. It's understandable!
i ended up reading this on a friend's suggestion after i started getting text messages about calling 911, that text911 was not available…? weird. anyway, got nowhere on fb trying to figure it out – just a forum for others like me. but i am one who NEVER clicks on weird links, be they supposed videos of me a friend has allegedly posted or profile view counter – who the heck even cares? no one is stalking me and i understand the risk i take by posting info and photos of me and my family so why should i want to sit and see who has been looking at it all? good grief!
anyway, i rarely allow apps to get my profile info – the ONLY thing i did recently was to join a cause of keeping Sexual Predators off FB, and invited people. could that have been it? i ended up just turning off my mobile notifications for now, so the prob is stopped but i never try to win a free anything on here either… i would hope most people would not fall for this crap!
if you have any advice for me on what else may have caused it or what to do about it, please advise immediately!
thanks so much!
dnt click on the link. I fell for ut and was charged £10 on my mobile bill and as per the small print i will be charged £10 every 7 days… right now i m struggling to get this sorted… if anyone has dealt with this earlier., kindly advise
Cheers
AL