Beware of worms on Facebook

McAfee warns of a new worm that's being passed around on Facebook. You'll get an e-mail from a friend that says something along the lines of "You look just awesome in this new movie." When you click the link to play the video, you'll be prompted to download "flash_player.exe," which is actually a worm called Koobface. Its purpose: to steer your searches from sites like Google and Yahoo to other sites, and to send spam to your Facebook friends.

So no matter how tempting the come-on (and we all like watching ourselves look good in movies), don't fall for it. Remember: Whenever you're prompted to download any software, do it from the real source for that software (in the case of Flash Player, that would be at Adobe's download site: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/), rather than an unknown site.

For more online safety tips, see our free Guide to Online Security.

—Donna Tapellini

Comments

[John Breyault]

Great advice, Donna! I think the growth in Web 2.0-based fraud/viruses is one of t he more underreported facets of the growth of online fraud.