FACEBOOK users are under attack from a virus sweeping through the online social network.
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 title of the dodgy links vary from “Maan,yyou’re great!” to “your ass looks not bad in this video”, “Some0ne thinks your special and has a *Hot_Crush* on you. Find out who it could be*” or a youtube link that says ‘”i can see yooooooooo”.
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 phoney 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.
The trojan comes just months after Facebook said it was working to protect its user from phishing scams.
Facebook has begun combating the virus by deactivating link when it can.
Facebook has not released an official comment regarding the attack.