Is Facebook Fan Check app a virus?

Several outlets are urging caution

Published : Tuesday, 15 Sep 2009, 9:36 AM EDT

Last week Facebook users flocked to download the new "Facebook Fan Check" app, which creates a list of top friends based on how much friends write on walls, comment on photos and more. But many are worried that the app is a virus.

One Facebook status people are posting on their pages on Monday reads, "Urgent!!! The fan Check application is a Virus that takes 48 hours to kick in. Even if you are tagged in a photo the virus still attacks you. Please inform all your friends remove / delete this application ASAP.... rewrite this message and or copy and paste to all your friends."

But several outlets are urging caution. PC Magazine reported last week that the app itself doesn't have the virus -- it's the many Web sites that are being set up that falsely claim to remove a virus from Fan Check that users should watch out for. People are searching for information about fan check online and getting results pages full of malware sites.

"Hackers have set up Web sites pretending to be about the 'Facebook Fan Check Virus,' but which really host fake anti-virus software which display bogus warnings about the security of your computer in an attempt to get you to install fraudulent software and cough-up your credit card details," wrote Graham Culley, a senior technology consultant on Sophos, last Monday .

Facebook Fan Check creator Janakan Arulkumarasa maintained that it's not the app that has the problems . It "is NOT a malicious app. Unfortunately, some malicious developers have been spreading a lie that is -- and encouraging people to download fake virus scanning software, which damages their computer. This is very unfortunate, but has nothing to do with us," he said.

Networkworld reports that a Facebook spokesperson said that the company had reviewed the app and it wasn't found to contain a virus.

Last Tuesday the Facebook Fan Check page listed 12.5 million monthly active users, according to Networkworld. Later that afternoon, users dropped to 6.4 million.

To see a video on how to watch out for this virus go to: www.Sophos.com.

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