Facebook is no stranger to spam. Just the fact that almost a billion people on the planet have a Facebook account makes it a perfect medium for scammers to exploit. They just blast out their bogus Facebook messages and notifications to as many emails as they can, and there is a good chance they will meet success of some kind.

This latest spam attack was reported to us yesterday. What makes this one convincing is that the email message uses a hyperlink that looks like a legitimate Facebook URL . The email message is shown below:

Once we dug a little deeper, we discovered a link to a Canadian Pharmacy buried in the HTML. If a user was to click the email link, they would be taken to the following page:

 To avoid this scam and ones like it in the future, it is important to understand the account verification and confirmation process that Facebook uses. Facebook will not email you a code to confirm your email address. They will email you a confirmation link, and as with most email verification messages, all you have to do is click on the link.

Facebook account verification is something totally different. To verify your account, Facebook will send you a code via text message. You simply enter the code and you’re done.

Here are a couple of links to Facebook’s Help Center on the topic:

How do I complete the sign-up process and confirm my email address?

I just signed up, how do I verify my account?

When in doubt, don’t click on email links. Navigate directly to Facebook and log in to see if you have any messages or notifications.

If you or your Facebook friends are falling for tricks like this, it’s time to get yourself informed of the latest threats. Be sure to join the Facecrooks community of over 170,000 fans on Facebook to be kept informed of the latest security issues.

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Recommended Resources

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