Facebook users on Monday woke up to a new scam spreading virally through the Facebook Chat windows.
A user will receive a spammy message from a friend that reads, "hey, i just made a photoshop of you," and includes a link that brings the user to an application installation window. The app asks for access to your Facebook information (name, gender, photo, networks, lists of friends, user ID, and more), as well as access to your Facebook Chat.
If you click "Allow," you are taken to a site that displays photoshopped images of people's faces on animals' bodies, the Register reports. Meanwhile, the newly installed application spams your Facebook friends via Chat.
M86 Security Labs reports that 88,000 people per hour have clicked on these links. The Register estimates that by 5 a.m. EST, over 600,000 profile have fallen victim to this viral threat.
"At this point, we do not know what the end game is for the scammers here," writes M86 Security Labs. "The destination site results in no malicious infection and does not lead to a survey scam. Having access to a users' Facebook Chat could allow the scam application to be used to send out other messages."
If you've accidentally clicked this rogue link and "allowed" the app to access your profile information, it is recommended that you remove the app immediately.