The Washington attorney general’s office is joining Facebook’s legal department in combating a problem that up until now has been fought only with security technology.

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Amazon.com doesn’t give away free gift cards on Facebook. Posts promising them were going up on the social network some 15 hours ago and in all likelihood the scheme may revive itself using a different address — whatever you do, don’t click on them.

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Facebook wall posts promising a Kim Kardashian sex video lead to malware.

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She’s baaaack: Yet another Miley Cyrus scam has surfaced on Facebook. Don’t click on any wall posts that look like the one pictured below.
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Connecticut state Representative Kim Rose had a bad Facebook experience. Someone created a page using her name and photos without her consent and then requested $650 from her friends. Although she allegedly reported the case to the social network at least a dozen times, the site took “too long” to address her concerns.
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Another legal victory for Facebook: A man pled guilty to blackmailing a 14-year-old girl through contact initiated on the social network, in a case called the first of its kind to be prosecuted in Northern California.

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When you forget your password for your email account, a few standard security questions will give you a chance to prove your identity. If this information is publicly displaye anywhere on Facebook, you’re vulnerable to hacking. Here’s a cautionary tale about exactly that.  Read the rest of this entry »

A viral scam spreading on Facebook touts a page called “What’s New on FarmVille?” that tries to coerce you into spamming all of your friends on the site and then completing a survey that would pay a commission to the scammer.
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Insomniacs might feel tempted to click on today’s Facebook spam scam promising that 92 percent of people who watch a video will fall asleep.

Of course, no such footage exists. Clicking through a series of windows leads to the usual affiliate survey scam.

This particular spammer may have gotten inspired by statistics showing that some people use Facebook at or near bedtime.

Who else but someone who can’t fall asleep would bother clicking on this scam? The scheme could use better wording to that effect, because the current version appearing in news feeds makes little sense.

In order for the posters of these claims to be anything other than spamware, they’d all have to be among the eight percent who’d allegedly seen the video without falling asleep. And if they were in that minority, they’d probably still have something more relaxed to say than “OMG!”

We suspect this particular spam scam may have a slower clickthrough rate than others of this genre. So here’s what the application’s page looks like on Facebook — by the time you see the real version of it, your wall already bears the “OMG!” spam and your friends’ walls are getting the same treatment.

Clicking on the play button takes you to the old familiar permission request page. Click on that you you see a window like the one above. Of course, none of the five options lead to a real security-checking exercise, although some lead to offsite games that don’t work. Ultimately all paths go to the survey the spammer wants you to complete so said party could score a commission. Don’t do it!

Readers, have you seen this sleeper of a scam spam show up on any of your friends’ walls? Do you know where this particular campaign originated or whether anyone has reported it to Facebook yet?

Almost every day we have to warn you not to click on new spamware. Right now the one spreading across Facebook the most briskly says: “This American GUY must be Stoned to De@th for doing this to a GIRL.”

This spam appears to be coming from a possibly growing number of applications, as the news feed posts say varying things after the word “via.” Click here to see what we mean about the spamware name variation, but avoid clicking any of the subsequent links.

The second you click on the link, the application begins its spam attack on your status field and wall. Two posts go on your wall instead of just one.

Like many other examples of scam-spam on Facebook, this one promises a video that appears quite scandalous in nature. All the better to trick you into clicking on the link that looks like a play icon. Of course, clicking on it doesn’t start a video at all, but rather a permission request.

Clicking “allow” brings up one of those ironic message windows saying the application wants to verify that you’re human.

We have reason to believe that the five options showing up in this window vary, perhaps based on the name of the application source cited in the news feed blurbs.

Clicking on any of the five ultimately takes you on a different detour to get to the survey at the end. No matter which route you take, the spammer earns a commission for every questionnaire completed and you get nothing in return for wasting your time.

Readers, have you seen this spam scam show up on any of your friends’ status updates or walls? Do you have any idea where this particular campaign is originating from? Has anyone reported it to Facebook yet? What can the social network do to prevent this in the future?