Please and thank you?  Microsoft has had some serious security issues over the years but recently there have been several problems that are so severe that they’ve had to release a fix outside of their normal schedule.  This is a pretty radical step since this causes companies (not to mention the rest of us) to spend time and resources that we hadn’t planned for.  Today, Microsoft released another out of cycle patch for Internet Explorer.  There have been a growing number of attacks that are exploiting this vulnerability.  I would recommend that you update with this patch as soon as possible so you can get back to Dave’s great series on scam spotting

F’acebook Antivirus

Notice the misspelling in Facebook. Facebook was pretty quick to remove this particularly nasty scam, but not before hundreds of thousands of profiles were infected. People have been wising up and deleting these scams as soon as they appear, but this one doesn’t seem to want to be deleted! Users on Facebook forums have been complaining that after deleting it, the photo remains.

TIP: According to Facebook Insider, there is only one way to remove this scam from your profile:

1. Open your photos
2. Click the offending picture
3. Look for your name in the list of people tagged
4. Click the ‘Remove Tag’ link that appears beside your name
5. The photo will then disappear. Just deleting it will not work.

Sadly, so true…

 

Farmville Cash scam

With over 88 million monthly users, it was inevitable that FarmVille would become a target for scams. Indeed, Social Threat’s Scott Vowels predicted this last week in a comment. The FamVille Cash scam is similar to the other album clickjacking scams we’ve been highlighting lately.
Here’s the attribute to watch out for:

1. Uses the correct FarmVille logo for cash, but remember, FarmVille’s currencies are not called “FarmVille Cash,” they’re called “Farm Cash” and “Farm Coins.” You can see how easily people are being fooled by that.
2. “I’ve sent you a 900 farmville cash using farmville cash! Accept this gift and send one back!” Notice the poor grammar, the improper capitalization and the call to action which, if clicked, will install the scam application on your profile.
3. Friends are randomly tagged, as is the case in most of these scams, and the app is posted seemingly by itself.
4. Album poster is different than the photo poster, and the name seems to be three different ethnic groups in one.

Additionally, we have two more screenshots for you. This first one shows that this app’s page has a number of anomalies itself.

1. No logo
2. 1,454 people gave this app a 1-star rating.
3. 108,000+ users, but only 2 friends
4. Category is “All” instead of “Games.”
5. No recent posts

And finally, look at the reviews themselves. People who were scammed are speaking out against this app.

TIP: Just because you play a large, safe game like FarmVille, doesn’t mean that you’re safe from scams. By simply looking at the game page before adding it, you would easily see that this page is fishy. Over 100,000 people have fallen prey to this scam. Don’t be one of them. If FarmVille logos appear in your photo albums, delete them.

Who Always Look Into My Profile??

This is a poorly written version of the common, “Who is checking my profile?” scam. In fact, except for the poor English in the headline, it’s identical.

Here are the attributes to look out for:

1. The image is set up like the “Who is checking my profile?” scam.
2. The app name does not match the headline and multiple friends have been tagged at random.
3. The “Try it, really works!” comment is present. Again.
4. The album poster is not the person who owns the profile it appears on.

TIP: If you see that you’ve been tagged in a photo, before clicking, see if it’s a friend of yours. If not, do not click. Ignore. If it is a friend, click through only to see the image. If it’s not a photo of you, leave the page or report it. It’s likely this scam, or one similar.