“If you get an instant message from anyone about a new browser called RockMelt- it is a virus. DO NOT OPEN IT. I don’t care who sends it. Please repost. This is spread to your friends if you open it,” reads the post that circulates on Facebook.
As Hoax Slayer
highlights, RockMelt is certainly not a virus, the only “suspicious” activity it performs is that it sends out invitations to the individuals found in the user’s contact list. Also, when the app was first released, some antivirus products identified the main executable file as being a piece of malware.
“Sorry about that, all. Because we're a new *.exe anti-virus software is raising objections. We're working with Norton and others to resolve but in the mean time you need to manually override,” RockMelt representatives
wrote at the time.
RockMelt is a free web browser created by Tim Howes and Eric Vishria that focuses on the use of social media services, especially Facebook and Twitter.
Because it focuses on Facebook, after it’s installed, RockMelt requests customers to log in to their accounts. Once logged in, users can send out invitations to all their friends.
This advertising method may be the one that made people catalog the application as being malicious. Mainly because the “send invites to all friends” option is enabled by default and those who aren’t careful may find that their friends are “spammed.”
RockMelt is not a virus, but because of the invite mechanism, many people seem to be displeased with it, naming it a “Trojan” and a “spammer.”
Hopefully, RockMelt will address the issues, but until then, users who want to try out the browser are advised to be careful when installing it, to ensure that their friends won’t be bombarded with unsolicited notifications.
Note. My Twitter account has been erroneously suspended. While this is sorted out, you can contact me via my author profile or follow me at @EduardKovacs1
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