Jan 24, 2011 11:51 GMT  ·  By

Security researchers warn of several Facebook scams that lure users onto deceptive survey pages via fake news headline about a man killing his girlfriend.

The viral scams generate messages like "A young man killed his girlfriend after he found this secret message in her inbox : [link]" or "DAMN!!!! A guy that lives in my street killed his girlfriend today!! Take a look it's in the news : [link]"

The links take users to pages promoting rogue Facebook apps. In one case, the page promotes a fake news application and displays a message reading "She had forgotten to close her session on the world's biggest social network. Her boyfriend came back home early and found this message in her inbox..."

This is meant to peak the user's interest and is followed by a "Click here to read the story" link. Doing so prompts a permission dialog from the rogue application asking for permission to post on their wall.

The apps are the propagation mechanisms behind these scams and will spam the victim's friends without their knowledge.

Users who end up installing them are then asked to complete surveys, usually under the pretense of security verifications, in order to see the promised content.

The surveys try to sign them up for premium rate mobile services or to convince them to buy products. Scammers earn a commission each time users fall victim to the trick.

People affected by the scams should go to Account > Privacy Settings > Applications and Websites and remove the rogue apps. They should also clean their wall of spam messages.

"Once again, the scammers on Facebook have proven they're prepared to stoop to some pretty sick depths in their pursuit of easy cash," notes Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos.