Fake Facebook photo tag ruse smears malware on PCs

Spam emails have attempted to trick Facebookers into visiting virus-stuffed web pages by claiming users have been tagged in photos.

The counterfeit messages appear to have been sent by the dominant social networking website, but the "From" address is misspelled as "Faceboook.com" among other mistakes. The emails feature clickable links to a website hosting malicious code, including the infamous Blackhole kit, which tries to gain control of users' systems when visited.

The hacker-controlled website is essentially a malware minefield that attempts to exploit web browser vulnerabilities and security flaws in Adobe applications and Java engines to push malware onto Microsoft Windows PCs.

Seconds after visiting the dodgy website - more than enough time for infection to occur - users are automatically transferred to the legitimate Facebook site, net security firm Sophos reports. This redirection is designed to minimise the possibility that victims will realise they've been attacked.

Sophos has added detection of the malware as Troj-JSRedir-HW. More details of the attack - including screenshots of the offending emails - can be found here. ®