This is something really scary and could affect your Facebook account as well.
I just got a notification in my profile saying someone has sent me a message on Facebook. As you can see in the screenshot, the notification looks like a real one.
I clicked that link but instead of opening my Facebook Inbox, I was taken to the Facebook login form saying "you must log in to see this page".
The only problem is that this login page is not hosted on facebook.com but fucabook.com (possible a phishing site) and had I not seen the address bar, my Facebook credentials would have easily landed in someone else’s inbox.
The app in question is called Inbox and the bad part is that it is still available in the Facebook Applications directory.
It’s quite possible that the same developer may have created many different Facebook apps with the same purpose so make sure you look at the status bar of the browser before you click any notification messages on Facebook.
Is my Facebook account hacked?
If you see such a notification in your Facebook profiles, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your Facebook account has been hacked. What it means is that one of your Facebook friends added that "rogue" application to his or her Facebook page and that action probably caused this phishing related message to show up in your profile.
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/internet/facebook-phishing/9444/
Tags: Archives, exclusive, facebook, phishing, security, Internet
Reader Comments
What’s more scary for me is that the invitation comes from “Laurentiu Iulian M. Popa”, a Romanian name, the same country I was born in.
I guess that it’s true what they say about my country being one with the highest thefts in computer industry.
Written by John Pope on 08.18.09
Damn Phishers,
Why are they irritating us like this always?
Good info Amit. Also try to inform this to Facebook team.
Written by BlogrPro.Com on 08.18.09
Scary, indeed.
Written by Abhisek on 08.18.09
Hi Amit. Thank you very much for this warning message. There are indeed many apps on Facebook many of which providing the same service, and a times, less vigilent users can easily fall in the traps set by hackers.
May more than one see this post and be careful in using apps on social websites.
Written by Joe NDZULO on 08.18.09
Thanks amit for timely warning..
But the frequency with which these social networking sites like facebook and twitter are being attacked is not a happy sign for future as these sites contain really a large amount of personal data…scary indeed.
Written by saurabh on 08.18.09
These lamers should use a server to create a domain like facebook.com to do the job more smartly. It is a pretty old phishing style.
anyway, good post :)
Written by Romel on 08.18.09
Thanks for sharing , Amit !
Written by Deepak on 08.18.09
The guy is Romanian…
Written by mugur on 08.18.09
I had to close Activeenglish.biz last year because of hackers who hacked it badly 3 times….so I am deadly scared of anything like that happening again…
Thanks for this warning. I shall be on the alert in future with all I open or even check.
Yes, it is scary
Maggi
Written by Maggi on 08.18.09
Hi Amit,
That’s great info.
Facebook developers team would appreciate your input if brought into their notice.
Written by Nirav on 08.18.09
I wonder how many people this affected. What’s fucabook supposed to be anyway? Either way, I’ll definitely be more careful and aware. Thanks Amit, keep the good content coming.
Written by Lynn David on 08.19.09