With Valentine’s Day just a couple of week away, people around the world including cybercriminals are getting ready, and Facebook with over 800 million users is a sweet place for them.
One of the earliest Valentine’s scam making the round this year comes in the form a Valentine’s Day theme for Facebook profiles according to computer security firm Trend Micro.
Like other scam apps, the attack starts off as a post (with a link) on affected users’ wall inviting other users to install a Valentine’s theme into their Facebook profile.
Credit: Trend Micro
On clicking the link, users are redirected to another page to install the theme.
“Clicking the install button on the page will prompt the download of a malicious file, FacebookChrome.crx which Trend Micro detects as TROJ_FOOKBACE.A. When executed, TROJ_FOOKBACE.A executes a script that is capable of displaying ads from certain websites,” Christopher Talampas, fraud analyst at Trend Micro, wrote in a blog post.
While, he believes that the malicious browser extension doesn’t seem to have information theft capabilities, it does have the ability to monitor the user’s browsing activities and redirect them to a survey page asking them for their mobile number.
He noted that the attack works only on Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox browsers. Opening the Facebook link using internet Explorer will redirect users directly to the same survey bypassing the downloading steps.
“The fact that the attack itself is focused on Chrome and Firefox may mean that cybercriminals are targeting extension-compatible browsers, as well as going after more popular browser choices,” Christopher wrote.
“It fits the criteria of a clickjacking attack more, where it automatically ‘likes’ several Facebook pages as well as automatically posts a message on the affected user’s wall,” he added.
With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, this scam may just be the beginning. I believe there are dozens of them out there already and many more to follow. So remember to use your judgement on Valentine’s posts/offers that prompt you to install something.
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