Malicious Facebook app developers seem to be focusing on spreading their malware using the social networks' chat feature right now. Here's how they're doing it and how to keep yourself safe.
All Facebook reports that a malicious app called Congood is being spread via Facebook chat quite rapidly at the moment. The way this happens is that users receive a message from a friend who's already fallen victim to the app — something along the lines of the message pictured above:
That URL leads to a Facebook page running an application called Congood. Clicking “allow” on the permission box leads to a page that flashes a picture of a woman’s back side for less than a second before popping up a menu of three different affiliate schemes.
Clicking on any of the three choices exposes you to malware and leads you down a path that earns the scammer a commission if you go through the whole exercise.
So what should you do? All Facebook has some advice:
Instead of wasting time playing the game, filling out a marketing survey or trying out customized profile layouts, close the window and go clean up your Facebook page — get rid of the application installed in your account, and delete any references to it in your news feed.
And if any of your friends start sending you malicious messages like that via Facebook chat or posting similar links on their walls, then give them a poke and point out this article so that they can understand what happens — and how to prevent it in the future.
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Rosa Golijan writes about tech here and there. She's a bit obsessed with Twitter and loves to be liked on Facebook.