14 DAY TRIAL // Another misleading advisory is making the rounds on Facebook. Users are warned that videos of girls with disfigured faces and invitations for birthday calendars lead to a “powerful computer virus.”
“Do not (!!) open the photo of the girl with the disfigured face circulating on Facebook, or the video that says that you appear on it, or accept invitations from the birthday calendar...they are powerful computer viruses named ‘trojans’,” reads the false warning written mainly in uppercase letters.
“Do not open the video/pic of the girl who commits suicide, or videos that come and say ‘fx’ (there are several) like the one of the dog with two legs. Do not open any page that says ‘who visited your profile’. These pages have v-i-r-u-s-e-s that automatically get forwarded to your contacts... be careful all!!!!”
It’s true that Facebook users should beware of bogus profile viewers, posts that advertise outrageous videos, and shady applications.
However, as security expert Graham Cluley highlights, this post is misleading and it doesn’t offer any real advice.
Viruses are not the same as Trojans, and most Facebook scams lead to survey schemes and shady third-party applications. “Powerful computer viruses called Trojans” are not as common on Facebook as this hoax leads us to believe.
“Anyone who passes on a scare such as the one above is really wasting the time of all of their online friends, and looking a bit of a dork for not doing their homework,” Cluley notes.
Facebook users are advised not to trust such messages. If you want to learn about the latest cyber security threats, check out the advisories of reputable companies.
Facebook posts that aren’t accompanied by a link to a genuine advisory should be disregarded.