14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook spammers seem to have hit the jackpot with a lure that promises to show people their very first status update on the social network, as scams using it have been going around for almost two weeks now.
The theme is so popular and generates so many clicks that yesterday there were several simultaneous attacks employing it today.
Some of the spam messages read: "1st fb Status by me was: 'lets see how facebook works!'. This was posted on 10/04/2009. Find your 1st Status @ [link]", "OMG now i can see my first status i used.. [link]", or "My first status was: "I got sucked into this stupid think lol thanks guys..." Check yours at [link]"
These are all clearly different scams and their presence two weeks after the original one is proof that messages promising nonexistent or banned Facebook features are the most attractive ones.
Others based on this similar concept, which have been recycled over and over again, promise seeing one's profile visitors or to be notified which people remove them from their list of friends. . They all lead users to a rogue app that asks for permission to post on their walls so it can spam their friends, then direct them to deceptive money-generating surveys.
"What's frustrating is that Facebook could do more to warn its almost 600 million users against survey scams like this.
"Simple warning messages posted on the official Facebook Security could instantly inform over 3.5 million users, who would be able to spread the warning to their online buddies," says Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos.
People hit by such scams should clean their profiles by going to Account > Privacy Settings > Applications and Websites and remove any unfamiliar apps from there. The spam messages should also be manually tracked down and deleted from their walls.