Phishing apps found on Facebook

The apps look innocuous, but if installed on a user's account can set off a chain of events designed to lure friends to phishing sites.

“Once this application is added [to an account], it uses the image of one of your friends (because your apps can see any info that you can see) to tell you that someone has generously sent you a meaningless graphic,” Rik Ferguson, solutions architect at Trend Micro, wrote in a blog post. “It also gives you options of how to respond to this dubious gift, but no button to act on those options.”

Another bogus app sends out notifications about supposed comments that have been made to a user's post. Hyperlinks in the notifications lead to a phishing website prompting the victim for their login credentials to “use the full functionality” of the malicious application. If they do this, their friends in turn are spammed with bogus notifications and hyperlinks to the phishing site.

“Always check the URL displayed in your browser's address bar before entering any sensitive information,” Ferguson wrote. “Also check the true destination of a link before clicking it, by hovering your mouse pointer over it. If it looks suspicious, don't click it.”

He suggested, too, that Facebook users review privacy settings and clear out any applications no longer used.

See original article on scmagazineus.com