Pharmaceutical scammers impersonate Facebook’s Notification System, entice users into purchasing counterfeit drugs


By Dancho Danchev

Opportunistic pharmaceutical scammers are currently spamvertising tens of thousands of bogus emails impersonating Facebook’s Notification System in an attempt to trick users into clicking on the links, supposedly coming from a trusted source. Once users click on the links found in the fake emails, they’re exposed to counterfeit pharmaceutical items available for purchase without a prescription.

More details:

Continue reading

Malware propagates through localized Facebook Wall posts


By Dancho Danchev

We’ve recently intercepted a localized — to Bulgarian — malware campaign, that’s propagating through Facebook Wall posts. Basically, a malware-infected user would unknowingly post a link+enticing message, in this case “Check it out!“, on their friend’s Walls, in an attempt to abuse their trusted relationship and provoke them to click on the malicious link. Once users click on the link, they’re exposed to the malicious software.

More details:

Continue reading

Fake ‘You’ve blocked/disabled your Facebook account’ themed emails serve client-side exploits and malware


By Dancho Danchev

Cybercriminals are currently spamvertising two separate campaigns, impersonating Facebook Inc., in an attempt to trick its users into thinking that their Facebook account has been disabled. What these two campaigns have in common is the fact that the client-side exploits serving domains are both parked on the same IP. Once users click on any of the links found in the malicious emails, they’re exposed to the client-side exploits served by the Black Hole Exploit Kit.

More details:

Continue reading

Malicious ‘Facebook Account Cancellation Request” themed emails serve client-side exploits and malware


By Dancho Danchev

In December, 2012, we intercepted a professional-looking email that was impersonating Facebook Inc. in an attempt to trick its users into thinking that they’ve received an “Account Cancellation Request“. In reality, once users clicked on the links, their hosts were automatically exploited through outdated and already patched client-side vulnerabilities, which dropped malware on the affected PCs.

Over the past 24 hours, cybercriminals have resumed spamvertising tens of thousands of legitimate-looking Facebook themed emails, once again using the same social engineering theme.

More details:

Continue reading

Fake ‘Change Facebook Color Theme’ events lead to rogue Chrome extensions


By Dancho Danchev

Cybercriminals have recently launched a privacy-violating campaign spreading across Facebook in an attempt to trick Facebook’s users into installing a rogue Chrome extension. Once installed, it will have access to all the data on all web sites, as well as access to your tabs and browsing history.

More details:

Continue reading

Bogus ‘Facebook Account Cancellation Request’ themed emails serve client-side exploits and malware


By Dancho Danchev

Facebook users, watch what you click on!

Cybercriminals are currently mass mailing bogus “Facebook Account Cancellation Requests“, in an attempt to trick Facebook’s users into clicking on the malicious link found in the email. Upon clicking on the link, users are exposed to client-side exploits which ultimately drop malware on the affected host.

More details:

Continue reading

Bogus Facebook ‘pending notifications’ themed emails serve client-side exploits and malware


By Dancho Danchev

Facebook users, watch out!

A recently launched malicious spam campaign is impersonating Facebook, Inc. in an attempt to trick its one billion users into thinking that they’ve received a notification alerting them on activities they may have missed on Facebook. Upon clicking on any of the links found in the email, users are exposed to the client-side exploits served by the Black Hole Exploit Kit.

More details:

Continue reading

Cybercriminals spamvertise millions of bogus Facebook notifications, serve malware


By Dancho Danchev

Recently, cybercriminals spamvertised yet another massive email campaign, impersonating the world’s most popular social network – Facebook.

It was similar to a previously profiled spam campaign imitating Facebook. However, in this case the cybercriminals behind it relied on attached malicious archives, compared to including exploits and malware serving links in the email.

More details:

Continue reading

Malware campaign spreading via Facebook direct messages spotted in the wild


By Dancho Danchev

Trust is vital, and cybercriminals know that there’s a higher probability that you will click on a link sent by a trusted friend, not from a complete stranger.

Yesterday, one of my Facebook friends sent me a direct message indicating that his host has been compromised, and is currently being used to send links to a malicious .zip archive through direct messages to all of his Facebook friends.

More details:

Continue reading

Bogus Facebook notifications lead to malware


By Dancho Danchev

In an attempt to trick users into getting themselves infected with malware, cybercriminals are currently spamvertising millions of emails impersonating Facebook.

More details:

Continue reading