FaceBook Fan Check Virus Already Infected A Lot Of Users
Just a few seconds ago I was praising FaceBook for its addictive games, but now we’re going to back it to blame it for its viruses. Yeah, you should know that FaceBook is full of viruses, malware and phishing scams among others, but you can protect yourselves. FaceBook Fan Check is apparently an app which checks your number of friends, then gives users the possibility to create a RSS feed to post it on your FaceBook page.
All is good until here as this is nothing more than a virus. When users try to access the FaceBook Fan Check app they’ll get a message that says the app is down because the developer is adding new features, and new capacity, and that it could take days to finish them. IT says that you should become a fan on FaceBook of the update, but in fact it will infect your FaceBook account, and it will send an email to all of your friends to become a fan, but it will infect them too.
Some say that the FaceBook Fan Check virus will change your password and email, but we’re not sure about that, and nobody reported that this FaceBook account was stolen. However, now that you know what is FaceBook Fan Check I advise you not to risk, at least until FaceBook releases an official statement regarding the Fan Check FaceBook virus.
It is said that it’s very hard to detect the FaceBook Fan Check virus therefore you should be careful. Be careful not to install any new security software that will promise you to remove the FaceBook Fan Check virus because who knows what you’ll install. Be safe!
- THIS POST WAS WRITTEN BY:
- Dragos Pirvu
Wheres any evidence of this supposed virus? Just seems like rumourmongering to me.
Sounds to me like it does nothing more and nothing less than any other rubbish application does to get users but this one seems to be successful with over 6m active monthly users.
Not so long back there was a vampire gaming app that was allowing the sending of emails to peoples inboxes with an add link thus bypassing the way apps were blocked because i did block it, had to report the thing to facebook in the end and chose to allow the option for the report to go to the developer and never had a thing in my inbox concerning that app since.
Well, both my daughter and I were tagged on this app by different people yesterday, and today we both have a trojan virus on our laptops – too much to be coincidence I think. removed it easily enough though with AVG!!!
petmuppetgirl – for starters…being tagged in a photo or on one of those photos could not cause your computer to recieve a trojan, you would have to use it at least, which i personally have used it and my highly secure laptop hasnt recieved a single threat!
Your article is very non-specific – there’s nothing but rumour concerning the alleged payload of this virus. There’s certainly no mention of it yet on any the websites of anti-virus companies (McAfee, Symantec etc).
I’m afraid I’m going to be sceptical about this until I hear it confirmed from a more reputable source – what I’ve read so far makes me wonder if this warning is a hoax.
I know a few people who were infected – it’s certainly more than a rumour. Of course, believe what you will.
You haven’t answered my question – what’s the payload? Does it just spam your friends list (as some other FB viruses have done), or does it do something more destructive?
It seems to me this Fan Check Virus thing was started in order for people to then go googling it for info and going to one of the many many websites that are infected with malware and download it from there.
I think i traced the start of the rumour to this group calling itself the Facebook Bugs and Security Alerts – http://www.facebook.com/wall.php?id=123674191388#/group.php?gid=123674191388 – the creator of the group is Stuart Anthony fb id 680578468 from WALES, UK so the group IS unofficial as Facebook is based in Palo Alto, CALIFORNIA, USA plus some members of the group are questioning why they received the message about Fan Check and are getting no answers.
The author of this blog is anonymous too so it could have been written by Stuart Anthony himself.
I know several people on my friends list who have been infected since adding this application. Coincidence? if so, for the sake of a crappy app, scepticism is all well and good, but I’d rather remove it and change my passwords than sit in my sceptical bubble waiting to see if my computer gets infected by it.
I have been on FB for a year now. Have sent, received, been unfriended by real and cyber friends. I have played games and clicked things… my virus protection caught luckily. Bottom line I’ve learned.. if someone randomly sends you a video link.. best attack approach, DO NOT open it!!. There are nasties out there and if your a cheapskate or just didnt renew your protection you’re screwed, and you have put everyone on your friend list at risk, these are real. And FINALLY…if you are a game player of any kind which I am, Mafia Wars, PLEASE HIT SKIP!! do not post that crap its all i see all day long…you give us a BAD name.
Tim my friends were all infected with a Trojan Virus
Bill you can simply click the top right hand of an application post ie “Mafia wars help needed” and choose hide
if you play then you know you need to ask friends for things sometimes 
It’s up to the individual, who doesn’t want to see those updates, to “hide” those feeds.
wow could you back that up with some facts? has it been reported to Facebook Admins? think they’d be warning us about it. Let’s shut down the internet cos it’s full of fucking retards… I mean viruses. every website and download is a potential threat, damn I could be getting a virus from looking at this article…. if only I had a dollar for every bullshit facebook status message and myspace inbox rumour i get, I’d be richer than bill gates. @Bill, I have made a post on Zynga’s forums under mafia wars suggestions, about the bullshit of the status updates they are causing, so look it up and bump it if you really hate it.
@buffy, yum do you talk over people in real life? no cos you’d be smacked in the mouth, why hide Mafia Wars feeds? I mean that hides everybody, not just the spamming rude players so by your views people not spamming should be hidden also because of the rude players? wow makes sense….. I mean as you say it’s up to the individual, which means people need to control their posting rate BS too.
damn any wonder I chose the name I have???
WARNING: A NEW PRODUCT HAS BEEN INVENTED!!! IT IS KNOWN AS THE ANIT VIRUS, WHILE THIS PREVENTS VIRUSES FROM INFECTING YOUR COMPUTER IT WON’T STOP COMPUTER USERS AND SOCIAL SITE ABUSERS FROM BEING FUCKING IDIOTS.
If ya get a virus, don’t have an AV oir know how to use one you shouldn’t even own a computer, let alone be online
Buffy – Which trojan? I know Koobface was circulating on FB a while back via a dodgy app. An up-to-date virus scanner ought to stomp it, though.
What’s definitely true is what ekibnoyob uis saying – Google on “facebook fan check” and you’ll be taken to Malware sites which will make your virus scanner light up like a Christmas tree. There’s a lot of evidence that the virus warning is a clever and evil hoax intended to sent people to those malware-infected sites.
Of course, the creator of Fan Check and the creator of those malware sites may be the same person.
I’ve posted an update to find out if anyone caught the name, All they’ve said so far is “trojan Virus”
Googling Fan Check Virus is the worst thing to do yup. The malware on googling could of just been a jump on the band wagon or combined. I would suspect it does give you a virus and they also are behind the malware on the removal of the virus.
Some techy out there must know by now!
Would be nice to hear something official from Facebook!
I want to see some proof that it actually does give malware. Just because someone says “omg i added that! i should do a virus scan! omg i have a virus!” chances are that person hasn’t done a virus check in months, and its most likely from something completely different.
Yay mashable has got on the case
my most trusted social media guide.
http://mashable.com/2009/09/07/facebook-fan-check-virus-hoax/
we dont want see another friendster like attacking virus ! Hope facebook will save from virus !
Trojan was called “fraudpack”
If Facebook goes down then how will i keep in touch with all my friends…oh wait, nevermind.
Fan Check IS NOT a virus. People are merely being told it is, then looking it up and being tricked into downloading a program which is supposed to “remove” this none existant virus, when actually this downloaded program is what is the virus
Whenever fan check goes down saying its under maintenance, maybe thats because it actually IS under maintenance, like the new features they added 2 days ago?
Why rin a site like this when posts which are made are uninformed speculation?
well the second I installed fan check my anti virus popped up with a Trojan,my computer has been really wierd ever since.I removed the appt. but still no changes.
Uploaded my virus scanner and done a full system scan – found nothing.
Facebook seems to be borked, though. But that’s looking like a FB-wide problem, because loads of people are complaining about it, regardless of whether they’ve installed Fan Check or not.
I was also tagged and used the App & today a Trojan was found in my PC. I did a scan 2 days before and everything was fine.
i was tagged to yesterday and today my facebook was not working very well so i delted who tagged me know it works fine
its not a rumour its happened to my facebook and all my friends
the fact that 4 out of the top 5 comments on my news feed are complaining of being hacked, coupled with the fact that facebook seems to be down at the time of me writing this, leads to to beleive that this is more than a rumour.
Graham – I got the Trojan right after using the Fan Check App, I did a scan 2 days before & I did not go to any site and download anything & all my friends on FB that used the App had the same Trojan.
I installed this app, and my computer has been messed up ever since! Especially my internet browsers.
Get a mac .. and virus’s will soon be a thing of the past
* No security sites lists this site as being a perpetrator of a virus and it has been long enough now that if it was a virus they would have it listed (however, they do warn against sites claiming to inform people about the “Fan Check virus”)
* This site does not request or require you to download anything (a virus is a program, not an illness in computers – you have to run one in order to get infected by it)
* This site also does not request or require you to run any kind of specialized web content like videos, scripts, etc. (again, viruses have to be ran in order to infect you – some can be embedded in web content to execute at the same time as the web content – the problem here is there’s no web content to be executed)
* Interestingly enough, since this rumor has started sites have appeared on Google claiming to give information on the “virus” but instead infect people with a very real virus (if there was a virus, there would be real sites on its existence, not just bogus sites that are targeted towards taking advantage of people wanting to know about the “virus”)
Don’t just take my word for it, though. Check out some of these links:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2149393/fan_check_virus_targets_facebook_users.html?cat=15
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/07/facebook_malign_buzz_scareware_ruse/
http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/09/08/237603/video-searches-on-facebooks-fan-check-leads-to-malware-warns.htm
http://tech2.in.com/india/news/internet/facebook-fan-check-virus-scare-leads-to-malware/86372/0
http://mashable.com/2009/09/07/facebook-fan-check-virus-hoax/
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2148665/rumored_fan_check_virus_scares_facebook.html?cat=15
Jonquil – Every single one of my friends that used the App had the same Trojan. I noticed a problem not long after I “allowed” the App & did NOT go to any site, as I was not aware it could have been Fan Check, I just did a virus scan & voila! It was there…I did do a scan 2 days before & had not been anywhere on the net besides FB & email, and, I did not open any attachments.
Okay, well, it seems like the virus is comming into place… all my friends who have got it have all had the same problem as me last night. My wall is usually updated every 5minuites or so, by annoying people etc. But last night it was showing me things from a week ago and Days ago! It kept on sending me notifications from a while ago, and it seemed like on most of them it was about Fancheck! I have now deleted the application, and everything is running smoothly! Don’t freak out, just delete the app, my best advice
My theory is,
It does give you a Virus, the creators then set up loads of malware sites too, then sat back and put in maintenance, asking you to join fan page, when they had enough fan members they released the fact that it had a virus and everyone panicked and ran off to search the internet for their malware sites. All one and the same creator.
Just a theory though …….
There is no discernible evidence in support of any virus linked to FanCheck. The mere act of “adding” an application via Facebook cannot, and does not, install software onto your computer. If anything, the worst that would be laid in place would be a tracking cookie. If you “installed” the application by downloading software then you may well be infected.
In addition. The majority of “Trojans” are NOT viruses and will not be found via conventional anti virus software. Although they will be found via anti spyware software (SpyBot S&D for example).
I have been using FanCheck since it initially launched as StalkerCheck. Not once have I had a virus.
I love the fact that you all jump on the band wagon and lay the blame for your own flawed browsing habits on something “rumoured” to contain a virus…
Oh… Be careful sending out friend requests too… That could infect you with the infamous “Armageddon Virus”… Again, not true. But you probably believe it now.
Look, if FanCheck was really the culprit we would ALL have gotten a virus, or our security software would at least said something about it (at least mine would have because I have the old school “ask me about every change to my system” configuration). Again, viruses are not living beings, they cannot select who they attempt to infect. Sophos also would have released a report about the virus before they released a report about all the bogus sites claiming to give you information on the virus.
BTW, when your wall feed goes batty it’s not caused by a virus, it’s caused by bugs in Facebook. Mine does that too from time to time but I don’t run screaming for the hills assuming it’s a virus because I know not everything weird that happens with a computer automatically means there’s a virus.
I have over 500 people on my Facebook, and most of them have this application. Not a single one has made a peep about getting a virus from FanCheck (or made a peep about having a virus at all for that matter). One did make a post about the rumor itself, which is why I investigated the issue. One of them did get hacked by Colon Cleanse this past week.
Now considering how popular this app is, don’t you think there would be a lot more complaints about it if it really was trying to plant a virus on everyone’s computers? Don’t just look at yourself a couple of friends, look at everyone that uses that app.
I want to know one thing. How do you know your friends have the same Trojan? Seriously. You made no mention of the Trojan’s name, so I assume it is in the wild. If it’s in the wild it’s just going to show up as a generic Trojan on virus scans. Considering the large amount of generic Trojans out there and the fact most anti-viruses have their own names for found infections, how do you know your virus is the same as your friends’ virus? If it did have a name please share it with us, because I’m getting tired of people claiming they got infected by the same Trojan as their friends but never coughing up a name for it so their reports hold no substance.
I hope that you could preserve my computer against all kind of virus !
thanks !
People are infected? How are they infected? I saw nothing about an infection… from what I hear the most it could do is spam…
I can’t stand my page clogged up with this crap… If you wanted to play games join those sites. Facebook is for communicating with old and new friends.