Facebook 'mygener.im' spam spotted
Friday, May 8, 2009
Users of the popular Facebook social network reported finding spam messages in their inboxes Thursday asking them to click on a link to an adware website. The messages said "look at mygener.im."
Web security experts said the messages appear to be the second stage of a phishing attack on Facebook last week, when users received messages from their online friends saying "check this out" and included a link to two websites that were designed to steal passwords and login credentials.
Now those hijacked accounts appear to be behind the latest spam messages reported on Thursday.
"We think it's adware," Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said of the mygener.im messages, according to CNET News. "It doesn't appear to be self-propagating. We are still investigating."
Adware is a program that once downloaded can be used by attackers to spy on computers for the purposes of identity theft.
The malware website was shut down by late yesterday morning Pacific time and any messages on Facebook containing the link had been removed.
Facebook last week reset the passwords of members whose accounts were hacked, but security experts said the spammers were able to get control of at least one user's account to send out new phishing attacks.
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