First of all, sorry guys, I haven't been posting much as of late because of my hectic semester schedule.
Anyways, I've made this post just to give everyone reading this a quick warning about the new facebook virus. Its not exactly a virus(strictly speaking), but its actually a form of malicious code that comes bundled up with some facebook apps, and it posts and tags weird stuff under your name without your consent. (You can see screenshots of facebook profile of victims in the images at the end of this post)
So without further ado, let me provide you a method to remove this thing:
- STEP1: CLEAR APPS: This code propagates through facebook apps primarily. If you have recently used or installed any new facebook apps. Consider clearing it. {I suggest clearing everything untrusted from the get-go though}
- Facebook apps are things like : Farmville, Candy Crush on Facebook, Draw my Thing, etc which sometimes asks you permission to do certain things on your account.
- To Get There: To get to the page with the list of all the apps you've permitted, CLICK HERE {Recommended to do this with a computer or Google Chrome browser in Android Phones|| Comment if problem persists with mobile}
- STEP2: Hover above the app you want to clear. You can see two options ,EDIT and DELETE. I suggest deleting all suspicious apps. You can always install them later if you need.
- STEP3: Once your app list is mostly cleared of 3rd party untrusted apps, observe your wall. If there are any more automatic posting, you should consider following STEP4 too.
- IMPORTANT NOTE: Please DO NOT FORGET to check mark "Delete all your app activity on facebook" before clicking remove.
- STEP4: Clear recently added
plugins. Plugins such as Adblock Plus, IDM etc are okay (as they are
trusted apps by real vendors). But please find and remove apps from
untrusted sources.
How to get there?
For Firefox: Type about:addons on your address bar
For Chrome: Type chrome:extensions on your address bar
NEW UPDATE: These viruses are changing day by day. If your chrome or firefox DOES NOT allow viewing or changing addons/extensions; simply reinstall chrome/firefox. Please comment if problems persist.
- My friend Apil got his virus removed this way:
Thanks for the awesome tip Apil! (^_^) - STEP5: MANUAL LABOUR: Unfortunately, facebook does not provide any feature to remove all the things you post with a click of a button. You need to manually remove each and every post that the virus has made. Becareful on clicking the link of those posts though. Thats how they propagate. STEP5 will protect yourself and your friends from getting this virus accidentally.
- FINAL STEP: After you have followed through all of the STEPS above, its a very good idea to change your password. Even though you've removed the propagation of the code itself, your password just might have been compromised somewhere along the way. So just to on the safe side, change it.
- That's it. Have a good day!
- Also, Do you have some alternate method to remove this virus? We would love to hear from you!! (^_^)
NOTE:
- ORIGINALLY POSTED A LONG TIME AGO IN MY OTHER BLOG (THIS IS A REBLOG THAT MAY NOT EXACTLY REFLECT THE CURRENT MALICIOUS CODE THAT IS AFFECTING FACEBOOK PROFILES. REGARDLESS, THE METHOD OF REMOVING THEM SHOULD BE THE SAME. COMMENT IF PROBLEM PERSISTS)
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