14 DAY TRIAL // A new scam is rapidly spreading on Facebook thanks to rogue apps that post messages about texting on the victims' walls without their knowledge.
The attacks began over the weekend with spam messages that read "OMG! Im never going to send another text message again after seeing this! http://tiny.cc/[censored]"
The tiny.cc link directed users to rogue Facebook pages, where they were invited to click on a image.
In turn this prompted them to give an application called ._. access to their profiles data and permission to post on their walls.
This variation of the scam has apparently stopped, but similar one has since taken off. The new version produces messages reading "OMG! Im not txtin again now that I have seen this! http://tiny.cc/[censored]"
The landing page is similar, but this time the rogue application requesting access to post from people's walls is called O_o.
Users who misguidedly grant the permissions asked by the application get redirected to an article about the health effects of texting that was published in the Sydney Morning Herald back in September 2008.
This is obviously done to distract their attention from what happened and make them believe that the spam message was legitimate. According to Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at UK antivirus vendor Sophos, the texting lure has been used by Facebook scammers on several different occasions until now.
Actually, reusing scam themes seems to be pretty common. We've seen numerous scams producing messages about a girl who allegedly committed suicide after her father posted a picture on her wall.
Another theme, that has been used over and over again is about a student who beats his teacher, or a teacher who hits a student in some cases.
As with all scams that involve rogue applications, it is not enough to simply remove the spam messages posted on the wall.
Affected users should also go to Account > Application settings, set the Show filter to "Authorized" and remove any application they don't recognize.