Facebook’s status as the biggest social media platform in the world in terms of monthly active users makes it a popular hub for malicious actors. The latest scam to hit the platform saw many Facebook users receiving copyright infringement notices (that was somewhat similar to a recent hacking campaign), with many major organizations also being targeted with all things having been considered and taken into account.
The copyright notice told recipients that their pages or accounts would get deleted if they did not take the appropriate action required. A research firm by the name of Avanan revealed that this scam was occurring, and with all of that having been said and now out of the way it is important to note that many users have already fallen prey to it.
Users receive an email ostensibly from Facebook which tells them that their account has been suspended due to copyright violations. They are then given a twenty four hour window to appeal the decision, and they are informed that if they do not appeal the decision their accounts will get permanently deleted.
As always, a link is provided in the malicious email and users are told to click on the link to submit their appeal. Doing so can be dangerous though because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up leading to user credentials getting stolen.
The link leads to a site that is built to harvest credentials, and hovering over the link before clicking on it can make that more apparent than might have been the case otherwise. This can be an especially dangerous campaign for brands and companies that rely on their Facebook pages to gain traction.
Phishing emails can usually be spotted by looking at the email address, but in spite of the fact that this is the case these malicious actors are using spoofing to cover their tracks. It’s essential to be careful about clicking on any links received in an email, otherwise the results could be pretty disastrous. Once credentials have been stolen, it can be impossible to regain access to your account again so being cautious is key here.
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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World
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