Aug 9, 2008 : Facebook Inc has blocked a virus that infected thousands of users’ accounts by presenting itself as a video message. The messages advertised links to videos on Google Video or YouTube sites and those who clicked on the links actually downloaded malicious software.
Users who unknowingly downloaded the virus via the video link were presented with an image of a court jester sticking his tongue out and rolling his eyes.
Although the virus affected less than 0.002 percent of Facebook population, based on its more than 120 million subscribers, that would amount to more than 2,000 people. Facebook disabled access to the links as soon as the information was obtained.
you’ll receive an e-mail from a friend that claims you’ve been caught on a hidden camera. The message sure looks legitimate, but take note – it isn’t!
It includes a link that leads to a site that looks like YouTube. But if you look carefully, you’ll realize it’s actually a fake YouTube site.
When you click the video to begin, a message pops up and says you first need to download a newer Flash player to play the video.. When the user downloads the so called ‘flash update’.. it is the trojan
More details about the trojan @ SYNC
This happened to me. However ever since my internet connection is down but yet it is stating that i have excellent connection.
o zainab it is very sad to hear that .but dont wory . we will give u a advise how to fixed it .at first i need to see the prob. . . . master.chief
ok so i got this video message on facebook from a friend so i opened the link and guess what it was a virus! my facebook has literally gone nuts since then. i changed my password which actually worked for a small while but now its really getting on my nerves. everybody on my facebook is getting all sorts of infected video messages everyday!
please help me out of this!
I just got a message in my inbox from a freind sayying “arre youu inn thiss videoo?!?!” with a link to a http://www.bit.ly.23432 somthin like tht, I’m obviosly not goin to check it out, obviously a virus. Bit annoying that not even facebook is safe from viruses :S
I got a virus from facebook . . . looked legit, something about a video that I was in. It infected my computer and cost me $100.00 from Norton to fix this virus. My advice . . . It is a wicked virus and must be removed immediately.
I have this same problem on my computer however, the virus is causing the computer to shut down and reboot prior to the virus scan completing? Any suggestions?
You can try to start windows in failsafe mode. Restart the computer and press F8 during startup. When windows has started you try to scan again with the virus protector.
By the way: I have moved the small fix for the facebook virus to here: Facebook virus solution
ok so i took my laptop to a spiecalist and he basically rebooted my computer and it got rid of the virus…but now i want to know if i can log into facebook or would i just get the virus again if i log in??
You don’t get the virus from logging into Facebook, so I think you can log in with no problem.
I got this virus from clicking on a link in a message that was sent to me. And the virus actually came from a 3rd party website and not Facebook itself.
If you have a good virus protector, f. ex. AVG antivirus it will warn you of these attacks before it is too late.
Thanks a lot for your advice, this is a nasty virus but I think it’s all taken care of now. I found the Anti malware software really helped as well and it is a free download. I did a system recovery for windows after that, set to a month previous from the virus, and now all is running smoothly. Thanks a lot and good luck to everyone with this virus!
I suggest that you reinstall your browser. Then go to the Regstry edit program regedit and search for 690974. This is the browser addon program that downloads all those viruses you have had.
Then delete all keys that are refering to 690974
If regedit doesn’t find 690974 you probably don’t have this virus. (You might have some other facebook virus)
So I tried to do the quick fix andA small fix for the Facebook Video Virus. The part that I did was this:
Go to Start menu, select Run and type regedit.
Click on HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT to the left.
And then find Typelib. Then find {E63648F7-3933-440EB4F6-A8F84DD7B7EB}
Right click on that and select delete.
Though the numbers were not exactly the same, in a panic i deleted them any way. Just wondering if you could offer me any insight as to what these related numbers usually do as now I can’t load my web browser at all, though I wiped out the virus through an anti-malware program. Anyways just woondering if I (oops) deleted something important and if theres anyway to get it back or reload the windows software. Cheers!
Nikki
I too got the virus. it does show up as win32.BHO.je but when I cleaned it I noticed that I had the tiny.proxy virus and the bolivar27.exe virus (these did not show up on my virus scan). There is also one other virus that it downloads but haven’t found it yet. This is a nasty virus, I can’t even log onto my computer. Most likely going to need to seek professional help removing the virus’
I know a ton of people who have been infected by this virus just this week, I don’t know why facebook can’t do anything about it. My computer is packed with spyware because of this virus too, but it could be worse. There’s a fake virus software program icon in the taskbar that flashes “X” “?”, and if you click on it it leads to a website to “update” your virus program. But beware, virusresponse2009.com is another attempt to install more viruses!
i want to log into my facebook but i can’t so please help me .
i was almost infected but thank goodness my virus deleted it before i was infected
I have contacted Facebook through warning@facebook.com twice and they haven’t replied so I sent another message to disabled@facebook.com. I sent this about 10 hours ago and still no reply. My guess is that this happened to thousands of people so they are flooded with requests right now…
I have checked my computer and antivirus program and the virus was caught by the antivirus program, thank goodness.
Brian, have you had any contact with facebook about allowing you back on? I have sent emails (one within 1 hour of when this all happened 3 days ago) and I have not heard back from them nor can I get back on facebook.
The same exact thing that happened to dana happened to me
Check to see if you got the virus anyway (maybe your virus protector didn’t quite catch it) as I said in an earlier post: http://blogulate.com/content/beware-of-the-facebook-video-virus/#comment-3916
If you have it, try to remove it as also said earlier.
And try to communicate with Facebook and see what they say.
This is the only suggestion I can give.
Within 10 minutes of me opening the email (video) from a friend on my list, I got an email from facebook “Our systems indicate that you’ve been misusing certain features on the site. This email serves as a warning. Misuse of Facebook’s features or violating Facebook’s terms of use may result in your account being disabled . Thanks in advance for your understanding and cooperation. If you have any questions, please contact warning@facebook.com from your login email address.The Facebook Team” So I went to log on within 1 minute of reading that and then it told me my account was disabled. That was my only warning. While I opened my email from the friend, and tried to download the “update”, by antivirus stopped it and said that the site was corrupt. So I got the “warning” email, then I tried to logon but it said I was disabled all within 10-15 minutes. I had been on facebook 4-5 hours earlier with no problems. What should I do?????
That is strange. They also send me an email saying that I have had a virus and was urging me to change my password and scan for viruses.
But if you didn’t download the “update” then this video virus is probably not the problem you are having.
I got this email about a video yesterday. I didn’t actually download the “video” virus “update” – my antivirus software stopped me BUT Facebook then told me I violated their “terms” and disabled my account..I think it thought that when the virus sent emails out to my friends on my friends list, that I was sending spam. While I didn’t download the virus on my computer, I still think it compromised my “friends” list. Hence, when the fake-virus email was sent out, it looked like I was doing something wrong that lead to me being disabled…I’ve sent several emails to facebook telling them why I think I was disabled and they have not responded nor allowed me to access my facebook account.
The facebook virus downloads all kind of crap.
Go to explorer. Select Tools, and then Manage Add ons. If the 690974 is still there you still got it. You can’t deactivate it, it will just reinstall itself.
I also got different kind of viruses that sent a lot of data to someplace I don’t know.
This worked for me…
The video I got from Facebook strikes as virus win32.BHO.je and effects hypertext links. They redirect to bogus antivirus software sites!!
To rid:
1. Download and install SPYBOT-SEARCH & DESTROY available download from http://www.safer-networking.org.
2. Click “Check for problems” This will most likely find much more unwanted adware, etc.
3. When scan finished Click “Fix Selected Problems”.
4. Then totally shut down computer and restart after scan and fix.
Just to repeat myself…look here:
http://www.venabili.com
i just got it today, what can we do if we clicked on the link already?
This has resurfaced, as of 08.24.08 some of my friends have just gotten infected moments ago. Has anyone heard any updates?
I have tried to remove this virus with some result.
I can’t garantee that everything has been removed but check out my small explanation here:
http://www.venabili.com
Best regards,
Andreas Broch