"Fram" for Facebook is no laughing matter

For all you Facebook fans, I wanted to alert you about a trend that McAfee Labs reported on over the weekend.  Have you ever noticed how there are some really cool applications on Facebook and then there are some really bad ones? 

You know the ones I am talking about… either you have to send something to 25 friends or you click on button accidently and it sends a ridiculous picture out to every one of your friends. Sound familiar?  Well, my friend Chris Barton over at “the Lab” posted a great blog explaining this phenomena.   It is called Fram, or Friend Spam, and is one of the most subversive forms of advertising on Facebook.  You may have heard it in the past when you are receive email spam from friends.

Below I’ve included one example of how the fram works, so you will know what it looks like and what to avoid. To check out the other ways that spammers are targeting you then check out the McAfee Labs fram blog.

First, you receive a post like this one from a friend on your wall: 

It will ask you to become a fan, so that you can see the next step.

This posts to your wall:

The fram quickly propagates from friend to friend–and spreads virally, to almost half a million fans.

So Chris points out that ”Facebook spam is somewhat complicated and mostly initiated by your friends.”

Here are his tips for avoiding wall spam:

1. Befriend only people who you know and trust.

2. Hide all the daft apps your friends use.

3. Hide all the friends who want to post everything and anything on their wall.

4.  Think very hard before granting an application permission. Remember: You are handing over information about yourself.

5. Report any spam on the bottom left of the wall page.

It’s great to stay in touch with your friends but you want to be careful of putting their information and computer in harm with fram.

Tracy
@Mcafeecybermom
cybermommcafeecom  (cybermommcafeecom)