Expecting a message, a greeting or a gift from your Valentine this week? Not able to sleep, dreaming about that romantic signal? Be warned! If you are not careful enough, you will have to lose sleep as e-Valentines know this anticipation of yours better than perhaps your real Valentine.

If you click unwittingly that enticing link to a greeting or a Valentine discount offer or a Valentine Day theme for your Facebook profile, you are doing it at your peril. Spammers ‘love’ you and your profiles, perhaps, more than your Valentines.

Internet security firm Trend Micro identifies a Valentine lure on Facebook. Another security solutions firm Symantec sees influx of mails, studded with huge discounts on jewellery and gifts, into inboxes of users.

“The attack begins with a post on affected users Wall inviting other users to install a Valentine’s theme into their Facebook profile,” researchers Trend Micro cautions.

“Once users click on this post, they are redirected to another page that urges them to install the said theme. Note that this attack only works on either Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox browsers,” they say.

Clicking the Install button on the page will prompt the download of the malicious file, FacebookChrome.crx which Trend Micro detects as TROJ_FOOKBACE.A. When executed, TROJ_FOOKBACE.A executes a script that is capable of displaying ads from certain websites, they say.

The problem with these extensions created by hackers and spammers is that they almost look similar to the extensions of the popular websites.

Info theft

Security solutions firm Symantec says cyber criminals have begun to cash in on the huge interest of Internet users on information and applications around the Valentine theme.

Users will be lured to fill in fake applications, getting a peep into personal information of users.

>kurmanath@thehindu.co.in

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