The Facebook Spam Scam

Watch out, social networkers...

Count on the spammers to try and stay a step ahead of us.

At this point, we know how to recognize spam in our e-mail boxes:  If I had a dime for every real estate, Nigerian inheritance, or manhood enlargement e-mail I got, I'd be wealthy enough to never have to check e-mail again.  But of course the intelligent spammers (ever seen those two words back-to-back?) know this, and so they've started to target something we trust more than our e-mail accounts. 

Our Facebook accounts.

The newest spam scam seems to be targeting our wallets.  A weight loss scheme called "Acai Berry" very badly wants you to visit its website.  To get you there, it's trying to disguise itself as a Facebook friend.  One Silicon Valley virus fighter told me that, as far, as weight loss websites go, this one is especially relentless, but worthless unless it gets people to stop by. 

What I find more interesting is that it's chosen Facebook.  This might be the newest thing for us to watch out for:  the sneak attack through our social networking sites.  My contact tells me that we have, indeed, become all but immune to e-mail spam, so look for more of these spam items under the cover of friendship messages.

Yet another reason to look at everything you see online, at least twice.

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