We have received reports of a new scare running among Facebook users. The message is approximately as follows:
Has your facebook been running slow lately? Go to "Settings" and select "application settings", change the dropdown box to "added to profile". If you see one in there called "un named app" delete it ... It's an internal spybot. Pass it on. THIS IS NOT A DRILL!! ------
And indeed, most users will actually have such an application in their “added to profile” box. Relax. Breathe out. This is no virus, it is just the “boxes” tab on your profile. Delete the application, and “boxes” goes away as well. If this is what you want, fine. According to Facebook, the “boxes” tab is going to go away soon anyway : [ http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Tabbed_Profile ]
There is however a more sinister side to this hoax. Most users, when confronted with this kind of alarmist message, will turn to Google for more information. When they do, the pages they find may not be of the beneficial kind. We have verified that Googling for this hoax returns multiple live links to pages infested with malicious content. These sites try to trick users to download a fake antivirus program by showing a web page like the one below, which looks a lot like a regular desktop being scanned. And, of course, the fake scan shows a lot of viruses and whatnot, a very convincing argument that you should accept download of a “virus-remover” . This virus-remover is in itself a trojan program that could cause all manner of real mischief.
The lesson to take away from this is that all warnings are not good. In particular, do not send warnings that ask to be sent on to others – they are chain letters!
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