Facebook members hit by another phishing scam

By Michelle Meyers, CNET News.com
Friday, May 15, 2009 10:42 AM

In what's just the latest Facebook phishing scam, hackers on Thursday broke into accounts and sent e-mails to friends urging them to log on to fake Facebook sites, according to new reports and anecdotes from members.

The social-networking site is in the process of cleaning up from the hack and is blocking compromised accounts, Reuters reported. "Victims were directed to log back in to the site, but actually logged into the one controlled by the hackers, unwittingly giving away their passwords," Reuters said, adding that the fake domains include www.151.im, www.121.im and www.123.im.

Facebook did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking confirmation and information about the hack. The number of users affected remains unknown, but a Facebook spokesman told the New York Times it "is not widespread and is only impacting a small fraction of a percent of users".

In addition to the scam, Facebook security made the news Thursday in relation to upcoming plans for "verified apps" on the site. Under this program, Facebook will review developer apps for a US$375 fee to make sure they fit security and transparency standards, and will award a graphic badge to apps that make the cut.

This article was first published as a blog post on CNET News.


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