25 May 2010 | Author: J. Cave SEO Consultant

Facebook spammers know that sex sells

Last weekend many Facebook users supposedly sent their friends a video of 'distracting beach babes', the still showing a young woman's derriere along with the message "this is hilarious! lol :P :P :P Distracting Beach Babes."

It's not the first time spammers have targeted unsuspecting Facebook users with engaging videos. Just last weekend a similar message was rife on Facebook, this time with the message "sexiest video ever", and a still of a woman in a very tight miniskirt to accompany it.

While many people wouldn't click on such a link if it arrived in an e-mail, the fact that it was supposedly sent by a friend - a Facebook friend at least - meant many people ended up clicking the link.

For those that did, users were sent to a fake Facebook application. They were then asked to update their Flash video player and in doing so, downloading adware onto their computer. And, to keep the ball rolling, the video was then posted to all of the friends of the unsuspecting user.

So what should Facebook users do now? Even though Facebook was able to dampen the effects of the problem - to a certain degree anyway - that wasn't until it had made its way onto thousands of Facebook accounts.

The NY Times advises Facebook users to regularly scan their computers for malware and adware, and should they see a tempting video on their profile that's obviously fake to delete it for the sake of their less resourceful friends.