This is of particular interest to me as I received one of these messages this morning. Being skeptical, I didn’t open it. I figured it would be worth sharing to get the word out there!

Facebook and its users are having a rough day. A serious Facebook virus is attacking the network’s users.

For the laymen:

If you receive a Facebook message (or a Facebook message alert in your email) with a questionable subject line, DO NOT CLICK THE LINK IN THE BODY!

…

The virus is technically a trojan worm that disguises itself as an email from facebookmail.com.

People are enticed to click on a misspelled video or picture link that directs to a malicious web site.

The worm spreads its tentacles by emailing everyone on the victim’s friend list.

According to anti-virus software company Symantec, the trojan works by executing a worm called W32.Koobface.A that searches for cookies on the user’s machine.

If the worm finds the appropriate Facebook cookie, it modifies the users account settings and profile – adding links to malicious sites to trick others into installing the invader.

Facebook discussion boards talk about the trojan directing users to a page which looks like YouTube.

The phony page asks the user to install a video player upgrade.

Installing the fake upgrade allows the worm to work its magic and access files on the victim’s machine while destroying their Facebook account.

Facebook has begun combating the virus by deactivating link when it can.

Source: Schipul.com Blog