'LOL is this you?' spam spreading via Facebook chat
Spam message, which Facebook says it's looking into, is similar to ones used on Twitter earlier this year.
Facebook on Friday afternoon was investigating what appeared to be a new spam scheme that results in users getting messages from friends over Facebook chat that have malicious links.
The messages say "LOL is this you?" and are accompanied by a link that looks like it leads to a video on Facebook, one victim told CNET. In his case, clicking the link directed to a Web page with a "404-Page Not Found" error message and his account sent the spam out to at least one of his friends, he said.
The spam was also reported on Twitter, but at this point the outbreak seems to be minor.
A Facebook spokesman said the company is looking into the matter.
The spam message is similar to ones used in several phishing attacks on Twitter in February.
Update 10:07 a.m. PDT August 30: A Facebook spokesman provided this comment over the weekend:
"The Chat messages were being sent from compromised accounts and included a link to an application on Facebook that has now been disabled. We disable spam applications as soon as they're reported to us or surfaced by our automated systems and before the scammers can get very far. We also quickly delete malicious links across the Facebook site, and when we detect that an account may be compromised, we block access to it and put the owner through a series of remediation steps."