I got an e-mail this morning from a friend who works as a computer scientist in Israel. I've never encountered this particular scenario but the fact that Symantec hasn't created a patch for it yet (I'm sure they will) is kind of alarming. Be forewarned:
I usually don't send these kinds of warnings but this time I witnessed a virus - a kinda new virus. Nothing I ever encountered before.
The new virus uses Facebook to distribute itself.
It is sending a harmless message through the facebook messaging system. A message just like you would expect your friend to send you. For example if you have a friend who has the virus. That friend's name is "John Doe" then you would get a message in Facebook from John Doe stating that he has a movie for you to see. This harmless message which is sent through Facebook directs you to a website, like YouTube or MegaVideo or other places (only that this is a fake website).
This website asks you to download a file to update your flash Codec definitions.
Do not download the file!
The file is a virus discovered on late June 2008 and will immediately distribute itself to the friends' list on Facebook.
This message has been passed to Symantec security center and they confirmed that this specific virus and distribution method is a new threat and will post a news bulletin on their website.
Hope it helps and that you have not been affected yet.
If you have, just go to one of the online scanners on the web (choose a good one - like Symantec, Kaspersky etc.) and clean the file and the affected files.
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