Facebook asks users to help fight phishing

2 hrs.

Suzanne Choney

Facebook is home to friends, family ??and phishing attempts by scammers seeking to connive you out of your personal info and hard-earned money. Thursday, the social network announced a new email address where users who spot such scams can report them.

The email address is phish@fb.com. By "providing Facebook with reports, we can investigate and request for?browser blacklisting and site takedowns where appropriate," Facebook said on its security page.

"We will then work with our eCrime team to ensure we hold bad actors accountable. Additionally, in some cases, we'll be able to identify victims, and secure their accounts."

This isn't the first effort Facebook is making to deal with phishing. ?The user-based email reporting?will add to "internal systems we have in place to detect phishing sites attempting to steal Facebook user login information.?The internal systems notify our team, so we can gather information on the attack, take the phishing sites offline, and notify users. Affected users will be prompted to change their password and provided education to better protect themselves in the future."

Facebook also shared some?tips from the Anti-Phishing Working Group that are good reminders for you when you're tempted to click on links within the social network:

Be suspicious of any email with urgent requests for login or financial information, and remember, unless the email is digitally signed, you can't be sure it wasn't forged or 'spoofed.'

Don't use the links in an email, instant message, or chat to get to any Web page if you suspect the message might not be authentic or you don't trust the sender, instead navigate to the website directly.

The Anti-Phishing Working Group says worldwide, there are between 25,000 and 30,000 "unique phishing email campaigns documented each month." With Facebook's nearly 1 billion users, it's a community ripe for ripoff. Make sure you apply?the same cautiousness you do with email and Web surfing to the social network.

??Via The Next Web?

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on?Facebook,?and on?Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Source: http://www.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/technology/technolog/facebook-asks-users-help-fight-phishing-932822

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