# A Bot on Facebook



## xico (Jun 29, 2002)

*Facebook Users Targeted in Massive Spam Run *
By Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service

*Facebook's 400 million users have been targeted by a spam run that could infect their computers with malicious software designed to steals passwords and other data, according to security researchers at McAfee.*

The messages appear to come from Facebook, with a return address that looks legitimate but has been spoofed, such as "[email protected]," Marcus said.

The messages say that the user's Facebook password has been reset and the user should download an attachment that contains the new password. The English-language messages are grammatically correct, but contain an odd sign-off: "Thanks, Your Facebook." McAfee has included a screenshot on its blog.

The attachment is actually a Trojan horse program, which infects a computer without any visible signs. Marcus said the spam run contained a variety of malware programs, including password stealers, rogue antivirus programs or botnet code.

More here: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscente...l_wbx_h_crawl1


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## Nebastion (Apr 24, 2009)

So lets say that someone does get infected? How effective are the listed threats?
Is there a counter measure for someone who is likley to do what their internet Machine tells them to do because im in a sea of people who would do this and look to me to Fix it.

Will Malware bytes detect it or AVG? 
I know theres no way of knowing for sure but Whats the Threshold for infection with the likes of Malware bytes, super Antispyware and Avg......?

Neb.


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

xico said:


> More here: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscente...l_wbx_h_crawl1


It says the page can't be found


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## Cheeseball81 (Mar 3, 2004)

Try this one: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscent...ebook_users_targeted_in_massive_spam_run.html


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## Rob Pearson (Jul 10, 2003)

Good find. Also good job giving a brief summary! Need more tech new posts like that (with a good summary or blurb to let us know what's up :up


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## Techiewoman (Mar 1, 2010)

So all you have to do is not open email from facebook. Sounds easy.


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## Rob Pearson (Jul 10, 2003)

What about those of us that use Outlook and have the preview pane? I'm guessing it still requires us to open the attachment before the infection occurs correct?


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## Techiewoman (Mar 1, 2010)

I've never used Outlook, but an educated guess is that you can set Outlook to a layout without the preview pane. I believe there are several layouts if you check the View or the Help file. Every other email program has it, and they all tend to be similar (except for the security issue, of course.)

Aside from that, yes, of course you never have to open an attachment.


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## Rob Pearson (Jul 10, 2003)

Yeah, with Outlook you can turn off the preview pane however it comes turned on by default. So it sounds like just as long as you don't touch the attachments you'll be good to go.


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