The Facebook Black scam has returned.
A large number of users have reported a scam similar to at least two that have previously circulated, designed to deliver further survey scams. Users are invited to change from the social networking site's traditional blue theme. They are directed to a Facebook page promoting the colour change, and from there via a series of redirects to a separate Facebook Black landing page, promoting a Google Chrome extension. If installed by the unsuspecting victim, this is used to download two JavaScript files hosted on Amazon's Simple Storage Service (S3).
The offending post reads “I Totally Just Added The Brand New Facebook Black.”
According to internet security company Symantec: “These JavaScript files are used to keep the scam spreading through each victim’s account. It does so by creating a new Facebook page on the victim’s account, which includes an iframe to the page that will redirect users to the Facebook Black landing page.”
Symantec adds, “Ultimately, users that install this Facebook extension will be presented with a set of survey scams, which is how the scammers monetize these types of campaigns.” The scammers earn more money for every person directed to the surveys.
Users that may have been tricked by this scam should uninstall the Chrome extension and delete the Facebook page that was created, says Symantec.
There is, incidentally, no such thing as Facebook Black.
