Facebook gets phished

Facebook's popularity now makes it a target for phishers, the Internet criminals who send fake emails in an effort to glom people's personal information and passwords. Usually the purpose is to crack into online trading accounts, or set up credit cards in someone else's name, but for some reason Facebook info is popular. This is the email I received this morning from Facebook:

We have received many reports of virus and spam emails disguised as
"crush" messages or requests for people's Facebook email and password. If
you click on the links in these spam emails, your computer could become
infected or you and your friends could become the target of spam
messages.

Obviously this sucks, so remember these two things:

1. If you see any sketchy emails, don't click on any of the links. If
you do, you might get a virus or get more spam.

2. Facebook will never ask you to give your email and password (except
for logging in), to reconfirm your account or to do anything to keep
your account.

We take your privacy and security very seriously. We first found out
about these virus and spam emails from our members, and we hope that
together we can continue to make Facebook a sweet place.

For those readers who have no idea what Facebook is, it's a "social networking site for college and university students, and increasingly, their young alumni. Register to see how it works. There are a handful of Extension School students, and one prospective student contacted me through the service.