# Facebook Account Mining/Phishing expedition



## Radish (Apr 11, 2007)

Just a heads up to fellow Lumberjocks that also spend time on Facebook that one of the applications - *"Picdoodle"* appears to be a phishing expedition or a least has hit upon a novel way to spread itself across that site.

The application allows a person to draw or doodle over jpeg images in one's albums. You supposedly need to allow the application access to your information in order for you to view any posted "picdoodle". I should have suspected something afoot just from that aspect alone. A legitimate application could certainly save the doodled image as a regular jpeg - accessible as all other images in your own or a friends album are currently - click the link-view the image.

After allowing said access, so that I could view someone else's post, one of my photos was doodled with three exclamation marks in the upper left corner, was posted with this supposed quote "I love this sweet pic" under my by-line, and a new album with this image was created under my account. Then all my friends were sent a notification that they had been tagged in the photo. In point of fact I never doodled the image, created the album nor did I tag anyone. The picture was of myself and one other person.

Obviously this is a bot attack aimed at account mining or at least proliferating itself much as virus would. I will subsequently not be playing with *any* of the Facebook toys that require access to my account info, friend lists or contact information in order to work. Judging from at least one other comment recently posted on Facebook, I believe there are other applications that behave in this or similar ways with less than happy outcomes. BE WARY. 
Facebook may be a great way to find lost friends and stay in touch, but is a not very safe neighborhood to play in.


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## MsDebbieP (Jan 4, 2007)

thanks Douglas.. knowledge is power!


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## littlecope (Oct 23, 2008)

Thanks for the heads up, Douglas. I'm always more than a little leery of these "just need access to your account" things. Ever Vigilant! Michael C.


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## NedB (Aug 21, 2008)

One thing i look at facebook as is 'disposable'. The email they have is not my primary one, in fact it is my secondary gmail account. sorry that that app was malware, did you report it to facebook?


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## boboswin (May 23, 2007)

I am really getting to hate face book. It creepy with all the intensional intrusions into one's privacy and the cryptic and annoying interface.
I thnk the owner's either democratize the concept or their is going to be a mass exodus of people.

Bob


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## Radish (Apr 11, 2007)

Yep NedB, reported it. I got the canned repsonse, am waiting to receive a more targeted response after a person reads the complaint.


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## CharlieM1958 (Nov 7, 2006)

Thanks for the heads up, Doug. I have an account, but don't really use it.


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## North40 (Oct 17, 2007)

Thanks for the info. Will avoid that one.


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## boboswin (May 23, 2007)

I got a $2.00 charge on my phone bill last month and enquired.
Apparently playing a game with my grandson and foolishly sticking my cell phone # in the info then immediately realizing that was a no no and closing the window was sufficient to have them harvest my number.
A couple of days later I recieved a message on my phone that I also did not reply to other than to see who sent it.
At any rate my service provider told me to call this number to be removed

*1-866-670-0126*

So far so good.

*I'm pretty much done with Facebook right about now.*
Bob


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## SteveKorz (Mar 25, 2008)

My wife allowed access to one of those games. She got a text on her phone that gave her a confirmation code to continue. Then later, she found out that the game was some sort of subscription service that was going to charge her $9.99 a month on her cell phone bill. She got that all cleared up, and now doesn't play any more games…. lol.

I am active on Facebook, but use it to mini-blog and connect with friends only. I ignore all the applications.


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## majeagle1 (Oct 29, 2008)

Great info Douglas, thanks for the heads up. I was thinking about getting onto Facebook but have always been leary. Now I don't even think I will bother…..........


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## Knuckles (Mar 17, 2009)

I know I'm a dinosaur, and in the minority, but I really don't see the attraction in the whole Facebook thing to begin with. I'm ok with that too.


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## boboswin (May 23, 2007)

I agree Chris. It's kind of like the bar- your friends drag you there.
Not something you would generally do by yourself.

Bob


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## baller (Nov 14, 2008)

facebook was great, for the first couple years (i was in the college dorms at UCI when i started seeing flyers for it, it was SMALL time)...but it seems, like as with anything else, where the money starts going trouble soon follows. So much spam, so much soliciting, it's just about as bad as myspace now. It seems like more websites in similar categories these days are adopting very similar/nearly identical structures, anyone else noticing this? Another example, while applying to various jobs, you could kind of tell a basic structure of the company based on the way they accept your application/your hiring process. Just thinking out loud, lol. btw just google'd FB to check the value, apparently it was valued at some point for $15 billion!!! wow, really wish i had more interest in programming, or had programmer friends (but from what i've come across, they usually aren't in my "top 4" [lol] for types of people i hang out with haha)


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## Grumpy (Nov 9, 2007)

Thanks Douglas.


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## Radish (Apr 11, 2007)

Never got roped into the IQ Quiz subscription. Too "Old and in the Way" to pay for text messaging or a phone that has the capability. BTW there is a little link in blue at the bottom that goes straight to your results without signing on for the nonsense.

I have to admit that there are a few dear friends that have re-emerged through FB, ones who actually still wanted something to do with this old bridge burning troglodyte. Apparently I wasn't as much of a human tornado as I thought I was. (12&12, p82).


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## prez (Jan 22, 2009)

I'm finding facebook is getting toooo invasive! I'm seriously thinking of "logging off".... permanently!


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## Quixote (Jun 9, 2008)

Doug, thanks for the heads up.

I'm not sure which is worse, the danger from the scams and phishig there, or the amount of time I could see myself wasting on the site.

Time I could better spend here eh?

Q


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## closetguy (Sep 29, 2007)

If you'll notice, the common thread to these problems doesn't start until someone starts giving other applications access to their information. I don't ever give access to any of those cutesy applications to access my Facebook information and I have never had an issue.

I never had any desire to use a social site such as Facebook or Myspace, but my kids changed my perspective last year. All of mine and my Wife's family live in other States, including my two oldest kids. We have a big social network going on Facebook that keeps everyone entertained just about everyday. We can keep up with brothers, sisters and kids on a regular basis. Everyone posts pictures, talks about work, shares recipes, and generally just chit-chats about things happening in their lives. I particularly like to see nieces and nephews and they grow up and participate in activities. Surprisingly, I have also became re-acquainted with some high school friends whom I haven't seen in 30+ years. Used appropriately, Facebook can be pretty cool. It's much better than text messages, which my kids live for, and I hate.


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