New Facebook Messenger virus, warn your friends, don't open strange videos
Did you receive a strange link from one of your Facebook contacts today? Stay alert: you may be the target of another hacking attempt. There are malicious people out there who want to hack your Facebook account or hack your Instagram password in an effort to spread malware and infect computers around the world. Many of these hackers are gaining unauthorized access to your friends accounts and are using their accounts to try and trick you into infecting your computer with malware.
Here’s how we found the hacking attempts on Facebook
Many Facebook users have started to receive strange messages from their friends via Facebook Messenger. As mentioned by various reports, you will first receive a message containing a video with your image and to entice you to click on the video, a mind-blowing number of views is shown. If you click on the video, the link redirects you to a plethora of virus filled clickbait sites. Of course, if you were to click on this link your computer/phone will likely become infected and your account will also start sending similar messages to your friends.
A few friends of mine had this happen and sent it to me, of course I didn't realize what it was until it was too late. My only solace was that I opened it on my phone and NOT my PC.
Here is what to look for:
Crazy Unbelievable Views on Videos from your friends
The messages will send a video link similar to the one in the pic, with an outrageous amount of views to entice you to watch the video. DO NOT DO IT. It will then open up several different websites, hack your contacts and send messages to all of those contacts
As always, remain vigilant when online and be cautious of unusual messages from your friends, especially from friends you haven’t spoken with in some time.
Additional things you should do to stay secure on Facebook and online in general are:
Use different passwords on every site. Don’t use the same password for your bank that you use for Facebook.
It is highly recommended that you use a password manager to generate and store your passwords securely. My personal recommendation is www.lastpass.com
I make sure everyone on my staff uses this as they cannot access our network without an account to it.
Use common sense. Common sense security is underrated but can make all the difference. If something seems off, don’t click it.
