One of the latest scams revolving around Facebook users is the “Tagged photos of you on Facebook” email scam. Victims receive fake emails from cyber criminals masquerading as Facebook that claim the user has a numerical amount of tagged photos from a friend or random person. A common subject line of the malicious emails is “Angela Werner tagged 2 photos of you on Facebook” (names and number of tagged photos vary).

These fraudulent emails claiming to contain information about tagged photos of you on Facebook are sent in order to persuade victims to click malicious links contained in the email. For instance the email may contain clickable buttons that say “see photos” or “go to notifications.” However, these buttons direct victims to a malicious websites or will infect a computer with malware.

These types of email phishing scams are very dangerous considering the invasion of privacy and for relations to crimes concerning credit theft, extortion, and identity theft. Furthermore, clicking links contained in the fake “tagged photos of you on Facebook” emails may install malware used to alter internet browser settings, as well as collect and view all computing and internet browsing activity.

If you receive these fake emails, ignore and delete them. The subject line is similar to “Angela Werner tagged 2 photos of you on Facebook” and the sender may claim to be from Facebook, using an email addresses similar to notification+zrdohvri=vd1@facebookmail.com, but in most cases the emails used do not exist and do not accept replies. In some cases, these fake emails may claim to have an attached file.

How to deal with malicious Facebook emails

If you suspect your computer is infected with malware associated with this Facebook scam it is recommended to perform a full system scan using reputable software such as Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.

1. Install the free or paid version of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware software.

   

2. Once Malwarebytes is installed, run the program. If you are using the free version of Malwarebytes you will be prompted to update the database, please do so.

3. Navigate to the first tab labeled “Scanner” and select the Perform full scan option. Click the Scan button to perform a full system scan. Malwarebytes will automatically detect malware infecting your computer system.

4. Once the full system scan is complete, Malwarebytes may prompt a message stating malicious objects were detected. Select the malicious objects and click the Remove Selected button to completely remove the malicious files from your computer (the image below shows a file that is NOT selected).