Attention DU FB users > FB Security Issues > Viruses and Bullying

[patrice]

You need to know this:

I received 2 nasty FB viruses: one through the chat interface, where one of my friends, whose identity was stolen, presented me an infected link. The second one was attached to one of the first of the user-created surveys I ever received. Both fixed now, at some expense to me. I saw another of these fishing attempts again last week. All FB Security settings set to "Friends only". I also have the FB security option for https//....

A few weeks ago I noticed a kind of unpleasant photo in my profile, different from the others, pretty clearly trailer-park trash (REALLY could see the slobby bedroom in the background), menacing body language and facial expression. I thought "Someone's in a bad mood," but didn't think too much else of it for several days.

Meanwhile, a possibly RACIST comment from someone in my large "friend" file attracted my attention, so I went to his page to get to know him better and to decide about that comment, one thing leading to another, I discovered the fellow, John Cupstid of South Carolina, has at least 6 accounts on FB, all on variations of his name, each friended to each of the others, and all with large friend files full mostly of "celebrities" and he is the fellow in that picture in my profile.

I removed and blocked Cupstid.

In looking at his picture, I observed a few hundred "Like" names, several "my-bestest-big-bro" type Replies, and a few dozen names tagged in the photo itself, one of which was I. I used the FB reporting widgets to try to get the photo removed, but after almost 12 hours FB "security" had not responded, so I went to my FB friends for advice.

I posted to my wall pretty much what I just told you and posted a screen shot of all of the names associated with John Cupstid's photo and kind of jokingly said something like, "If anything ever 'happens' to me, you all know where to start." I also told my friends that FB "security" had not responded to my request to have the photo removed. I ran the screen shot of all of those names a few more times, described it, and commented on it, my friends also commented with concern.

The photo then disappeared and my friends and I agreed that it was possible that Cupstid or one of his friends had taken it down. I guess FB security doesn't notify you of their actions, so it could have been them, though my request had been in their cue less than a day and I have no idea what their response rate is on something like this.

Here's the kicker:

Soon after John Cupstid's photo was removed from my profile, another photo, a pornographic one, ostensibly from one of the pre-teens in my friend file was posted to my FB stream.

I have checked and I know exactly where that boy was when all of this went down and he was indeed very far away from any means of posting to FB and with a large church group. I'm very disturbed by the fact that out of a friend file of 500+ (and after someone had been removed AND blocked - after the menacing picture was removed) out of ALL of the others the hacker could have used, someone picked that BOY to threaten at minimum by implication, if not an outright threat.

Just a word of caution to the wise: FB is a great tool , but there are things users should know. I'll be spending a few days doing some housekeeping over there. Anyone with any good tips will be appreciated.

Just as insurance for my little-man friend, I am considering posting that screen shot of names here, the threatening photo I didn't get, wouldn't be much use anyway, and I was so freaked by the pornography that I just X'd it out.

So, first lesson learned: I guess FB security tip #1 is grab those screenshots.

Thanks for reading this. I feel a little better now.