Monday, January 30, 2012

Facebook Valentine's Theme is Malware in Hiding

When Valentine's Day blows up in your faceWith Valentine’s Day right around the corner, many of us are beginning to wonder what we’re going to do to show our significant others how much we love them.

Cybercriminals, on the other hand, are preparing to show everyone how much they love to run scams, spread malware and be a general nuisance to the public.

After all, it would be crazy to expect Valentine’s Day to come without a custom Facebook scam in tow, right?

This year, cybercrooks are hoping to treat the public with malware disguised as a Valentine’s Day Theme for Facebook.

Install Valentine's Day Theme for Facebook Spam
Hey guys did you checkout the new Facebook Valentine's Theme?

Me and My Lover Installed :D

It Looks so Lovely!! <3 <3 (Random gibberish)

Install Facebook Valentines Theme ! :D
version2test3.tumblr.com
Facebook Introduces the new valentines theme for valentines season

Clicking the link within the spam message promoting the bogus Valentine’s Day Facebook Theme will ultimately lead you to stalkers.jiteshkakkar.com, which will welcome you to join 78 of your Facebook friends that have allegedly installed the theme already.

Install Valentine's Day Theme


Unfortunately, clicking on the ‘Install’ link will initiate the download of a file called “FacebookChrome.crx”, which is not a Valentine’s Day Theme for your Facebook profile, but a malicious browser plug-in called “Facebook Improvement | Facebook.com” that will serve ads whenever you login to your Facebook profile, automatically like random Facebook pages and post spam on your friend’s walls on your behalf.

Isn’t that sweet of the cybercrooks?

One thing to note, though, is that this particular scam only shows affection towards those who are running Firefox or Google Chrome when they visit this offer. Internet Explorer users are not worthy of a malicious plug-in attack and are merely given a bunch of surveys to play with.

Tell Cybercriminals: "I'm just NOT that into you" &
Reject their Gift of a Rogue Browser Plug-in for Valentine’s Day


If you’re not into your browser being hijacked or being labeled as a spammer, here’s what you should do when presented with the rogue browser plug-in masquerading as a lovey-dovey Valentine’s Day Facebook Theme:

  1. Remove any Facebook wall posts you’ve posted and/or mark any messages you see advertising the Valentine’s Day Theme for Facebook as spam.

  2. If you have it installed, immediately disable and uninstall the “Facebook Improvement | Facebook.com” extension from Chrome and/or Firefox. (Need instructions?)

  3. Unlike any pages that were liked by the rogue plug-in by editing your profile and clicking ‘Activities and Interests’. There you will see the pages you’ve liked, along with the ability to unlike those you’re not genuinely interested in.

  4. Remove any spam that the browser extension posted on your behalf.

  5. Warn your family and friends not to fall for this scam or download any browser plug-ins from untrusted/unknown sources.


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