This article was published on January 7, 2011

Another scam called “My 1st St@tus” is going viral on Facebook


Another scam called “My 1st St@tus” is going viral on Facebook

Oh Facebook users. You’d think that they’d have learned by now to avoid those nasty applications. However, the Internet is rife with people who want to know everything about themselves, and the “My 1st St@tus” scam aims directly at them.

First, you’ll likely see messages that look like this:

Clicking on the link in the message, as you can probably imagine, will take you to a page that links to a Facebook application. That “application” will request to post onto your wall, so that the scam can propagate. According to Sophos, the application then asks you to fill out a survey to prove that you’re human. This is where the scammers are likely making their cash.

And you? Well, you’ll find that the rogue application has meanwhile taken the opportunity to post a message on your Facebook page, which is now being seen by all of your online friends. When I deliberately infected a test account with the rogue application it got my first status message incorrect, as well as the date that I first posted to the Facebook account.

So there you have it. You fill in information, you give it permission to post to your wall and someone elsewhere is profiting from the whole shebang. Bear it in mind, ladies and gentlemen — know your applications and watch what they ask to do.

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