Fake a Facebook Friend Scam

A Facebook post this morning reported that a friend's Facebook account had been scammed. 
I read more about the problem to understand what happened.  There is a good article on the topic by Katherine Hutt at Consumer News and Opinion http://www.bbb.org/blog/2013/07/imposter-facebook-profiles-can-fake-out-your-real-friends/

First, do not accept a Friend invitation if that person is already your friend (check your Friends list).  I believe I might have done that unknowingly. 

The motives for the fraud are:

• To learn more about you
• To pretend to have an emergency requiring you send money

Northeaster University IT services ( http://www.northeastern.edu/securenu/?page_id=471 ) provides helpful information about how to identify a fake.  

Emerging Android Trojans - Be on the Lookout

PC World has another article on cyber criminal activities involving Android devices,
Beware Android Trojans Hitching a Ride on Botnets, at http://www.techhive.com/article/2048287/beware-android-trojans-hitching-a-ride-on-botnets.html.  

According to the article, the Android is the mobile app equivalent to Windows PC for cyber criminals.  The name of the Android Trojan is Obad.a Trojan.  The Trojan is distributed using botnets designed for other malware.  If you are using an Android mobile device, pay particular attention to the distribution of the Trojan software noted below.

A quote from the article PC World:

"Handsets are initially infected with the botnet software SMS.AndroidOS.Opfake.a through a poisoned link in an SMS message.

The link promises to deliver a new MMS message to the target. If clicked, the botware will be downloaded and the target asked to run it. If the target complies, SMS messages with the same MMS pitch will be sent to everyone on the target's contact list.

In addition, the botware will download Obad.a, which sets up a backdoor on the handset that allows a botmaster to remotely control the device.

Other more conventional means are also used to distribute Obad.a, including SMS spam, links to fake Google Play stores and redirection from poisoned websites."

Less Spam - Hopefully After Botnet Take Down

Have you noticed any decrease in your spam mail?  We should see some changes this week because of of the world's largest spam producing botnet, Grum, was taken out of commission last week. According to CNN MoneyTech, Grum and Lethnic botnets are responsible for about 50% of the spam.  Grum was creating 18 BILLION emails every day.  The spam was advertising pharmaceutical cheap drugs. The operators of Lethnic, another botnet, went "underground" after Grum was disabled.  The effort to disable Grum was an international coordinated effort. You can read more about the Grum take down (reads like a mystery novel) at http://money.cnn.com/2012/07/19/technology/grum-spam-botnet/index.htm

Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botnet has a very good explanation on botnets. 

The topic of botnets is discussed in an earlier blog and also in the 4th edition of the textbook.  Interestingly enough, I picked up my first malware ever when I was researching the topic of botnets for the textbook.  I now keep Malwarebytes operating on my Windows PC.  Malwarebytes detection is free from http://pchelpcenter.org/Malware-Download-Repair/repair/ .  You have to register to remove any found malware (don't remember having to do that earlier).  The fee for Malwarebytes Pro is $24.95.