Facebook users succumb to addon scam

Facebook users have been warned that a “who viewed my profile” application is indeed a scam and does not genuinely show you who has looked at your profile at all.

Rik Ferguson, a senior security consultant at Trend Micro, warns he has already identified 25 different copies of the same rogue app but using different monikers such as peeppeep-pro, profile-check-online and stalk-my-profile.

Some of the Facebook Applications even offer a photo montage of the aleged visitors to your profile – these are fake and it simply randomly selects a group of your known friends and shows them in the image.

“The app itself is designed to look convincing enough, but none of the many ‘Continue’ buttons it offers will activate some under-the-counter profile checking functionality – they will just push you into another Facebook app earning the scammer advertising revenue in the process,” Ferguson explains in a blog post containing screenshots illustrating the scam, which resurfaced over the weekend. “There is no officially sanctioned Facebook functionality that will allow you to view who has been checking your profile.”

As always, TheRegister has a full report here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/15/facebook_profile_stalk_scam/

At Consider IT, we want all our clients, customers and readers of our blog to remember not to install Applications you don’t trust. If something looks suspicious, then chances are it’s a scam. Err on the side of caution and ask yourself if you really want this unknown Application on your Facebook profile.

At the time of posting, Facebook have taken action to remove the offending Applications from their services.