Facebook users in the Spokane area can now use a new email account set up by the popular social media network to report people they suspect of trying to steal their personal information.
On Thursday, August 9, Facebook Security posted an update that explains how the new service works.
According to Facebook Security, "Today, Facebook is proud to announce the launch of phish@fb.com, an email address available to the public to report phishing attempts against Facebook. Phishing is any attempt to acquire personal information, such as username, password, or financial information via impersonation or spoofing.
"By providing Facebook with reports, we can investigate and request for browser blacklisting and site takedowns where appropriate. We will then work with our eCrime team to ensure we hold bad actors accountable. Additionally, in some cases, we'll be able to identify victims, and secure their accounts."
Chloe Albanesius of PC Magazine explained how phishing usually works in an article that was published on August 9.
According to Albanesius, "Phishing emails look as though they are from legitimate sources, like Facebook. They might claim that your account has been compromised and request that you verify your data by clicking on a link and entering a username and password. But the emails are scams and serve only to steal your data. Legitimate company emails will never ask you to click a link and enter your personal information."
Facebook Security added that if somebody doesn't trust a link to a website that is provided in an email, instant message or other way of contacting him or her, that person should go directly to the site instead of using it.
The Facebook announcement went on to explain more of the things their security experts can do to help protect users.
According to Facebook Security, "This new reporting channel will compliment internal systems we have in place to detect phishing sites attempting to steal Facebook user login information. The internal systems notify our team, so we can gather information on the attack, take the phishing sites offline, and notify users. Affected users will be prompted to change their password and provided education to better protect themselves in the future."
These are all good steps in the right direction, but some would argue that Facebook made people more vulnerable to phishing when they changed the default email addresses listed in everyone's profiles without permission back in June.
According to Eileen Brown of ZDNet, "Since Facebook changed everyone's email address to [User profile name]@Facebook.com it opened up its users to potential spam and phishing attacks. If you know the person’s Facebook profile name, you can send them an email from outside of Facebook.
"This could be a spammer's dream and a nightmare for Facebook if its user's accounts get compromised.
"It is simple to scrape the Facebook user profile name, append @Facebook.com onto it and mass mail who you want to. Careless users can then introduce replicating worms and other malicious apps into Facebook just by clicking on the link in their email."
Hopefully, this new service will help compensate for any problems Facebook unintentionally caused in June. In the meantime, Facebook users in the Spokane area should probably change the email settings in their profiles (if they haven't already) just to be on the safe side.
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