Nov 27, 2010 08:18 GMT  ·  By

Facebook scammers are at work again tricking users with promises of being able to view their profile visitors, a feature that will most likely never be added to Facebook.

The new viral scam produces spam messages that read: "OMG OMG OMG … I can't believe this actually works! Now you can really see who viewed your profile! on [url]"

The use of "really" in the message suggests that this lure has been used so many times before that users began picking up on it and now require extra convincing.

Unfortunately, to many people's disappointment, this claim is not true either and will only lead to surveys trying to sign them up for premium rate services.

But not before they become a conduit for spam, as part of the scam's propagation routine. Visiting the link takes users to a page advertising the old "ProfileSpy" rogue app under a new name – Profile Watcher V2.1.

However, clicking on the install button will prompt a request for permission dialog from an app deceptively called "ePrivacy," which, among other things, wants access to post on the user's wall; obviously for spamming purposes.

"Always think before you add an unknown application on Facebook, and ask yourself if you're really comfortable with ceding such power to complete strangers," advises Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos.

"Rogue application attacks like this, spreading virally, are becoming increasingly common - and do no good for anyone apart from the scammers behind them," he adds.

This particular scam has probably made tens of thousands of victims already. It spams different bit.ly links that lead to the rogue app page and the stats for a single one of them showed almost 60,000 clicks.

Viewing their profile visitors might be appealing to a lot of people, but if this feature would exist, it would be a serious privacy violation, which is the reason why Facebook will probably never introduce it.