Ben's Blog World: Facebook spam infinitely more effective than email spam

Friday, August 27, 2010

Facebook spam infinitely more effective than email spam

Security firm F-Secure has shared some interesting information regarding spam. It's no secret that Facebook has become a popular platform for spammers and poisoned links (URLs that lead to malware). What you might not realize is how successful spammers are on Facebook.

F-Secure reports click rates as high as 40%. That's insane. Email spam isn't even in the same solar system percentage-wise. There have been several highly-publicized Facebook incidents, from the rogue antivirus scare to fake like buttons. These problems aren't unique to Facebook, of course -- but it's more effective because links and likes appear on a trusted friend's profile page.

I didn't really need to read F-Secure's report to know this was the case -- I've already heard a familiar tale of woe from dozens of end users:

"My computer was running fine yesterday, and then I got this weird message on Facebook..."

"... And you clicked something you shouldn't have?"

"I ended up on some page and then Windows told me I had 834 infections on my computer."

"..."

My guess: people just haven't come to terms with the fact that Facebook is an Internet petri dish full of rapidly-multiplying spam bacteria. Email? Yeah, they're well aware of the inherent dangers in their trusty old inbox. They've been dealing with Viagra mails and Nigerian princes for years.

Facebook? Not so much. The general public is still laboring under the impression that Facebook is a place for them to socialize with their friends, play games, and like stuff.

Eventually people will figure it out. As for those of you who (like me) earn a living cleaning up after careless clickers? We've probably still got several years of reformat and malware removal income on the way.