by LwEEs
Another Problem with Facebook, YoVille Virus
May 13, 2009 in Social Networking by LwEEs
I don’t like having any kind of applications on my Facebook account, they always seem to be unsafe and I was right. Some time ago I accepted an invitation to YoVille, mainly I was interested in testing the application environment to determine its potential for social interaction. While the game itself is very entertaining I find that if you use a wrong web browser and no anti-virus on you PC, you are out of luck.
YoVille, which is develop by zynga, is a community where you create an avatar and play a simulation game (ala second life.) You are given an apartment and the ability to earn YoVille money to buy stuff to furnish you environment. While it can be very addictive, I find that some people get the best out of it and the interaction is pretty cool.
What’s the problem?
I logged into my account and a document automatically downloaded, (see attached screen shot) it was an .aspx document that tried to open a Citrix environment on my Mac. If I was to be on a PC, this could potentially send me to some other place, like an automatic forward from one place on the web to another.
Immediately I got suspicious, I launched one un-patched version of Safari that I have for testing purposes and guess what, there’s a nasty virus, worm, trojan, whatever you want to call it, launching itself when you access YoVille. If you have an up-to-date machine and a strong anti-virus you are ok, otherwise you may already be infected.
I’m attaching all screen-shots of what I encountered, the environment may be confusing for you as it looks like a MS Windows environment when in fact I’m on my Mac. Spread the word, don’t let this thing bite you, if you don’t have anti-virus software on your PC, get one. I always recommend AVG but any of the commercially available software should take care of this.
Here are some screen shots for your enjoyment, this were taken at the moment of “infection”. Since I’m on a Mac there’s no actual infection, I have scan my computer and there are no trace of this thing infecting me permanently.
PS. I contacted the developers and have not heard back from them, as soon as I hear back from them I will let everyone know.
This happened to me today, I am so upset. I just bought a laptop about a month ago, I’m afraid it is ruined. Have an updated virus protection, scanning now but I don’t know what I am doing. I don’t think I will ever use a game on Facebook again and am thinking about deleting facebook if I ever get my computer working again.
I feel the pain Deborah, what I did was to uninstall and block YoVille, I’m still using Facebook but with care, I don’t accept new applications, keeping straight for seeing my family pictures and comments.
BTW, the developers still haven’t answered my emails, which is either that they are too busy or they don’t care. Good luck with your computer.
Luis .. thats right man .. the various devs are pretty poor alright.
Deborah .. there is NO virus really that will properly kill your PC.
any tecchy friend will tell you that. if your PC does’nt start up – you may have a CD or two, or something to ‘restore’ it – back to like when it was new..
** IF ** you know someone really PC geeky and friendly _
and to be quite honest, i would seek out a friendly computer geek anyway and instead of your PC having windows on it .. you could usee a free alternative called LINUX – you can get this off the internet, burn it to a blank CD – then start using that instead. it feel kinda funny at first, but hey .. no viruses, nothing like that, just switch the PC on and use it
. i suggest Linux Mint CD
Sheesh will people EVER learn?!? The virus/trojan/malware was not installed by YoVille .. it was installed by the “free scanner” that warned you you needed to use a scanner. This is one of the oldest hacks on the web. What happened was a BANNER AD on Facebook must have redirected you to quickscanpcv1.com which a simple Google search will show you is a notorius malware site. Didn’t you WONDER? why the dialog box in your 2nd picture said “WINDOWS Security Alert” in a Windows style dialog? It is because it was FAKE! Facebook isn’t the problem. YoVille isn’t the problem. You clicked the button and “installed” the malware yourself and yes you were lucky you were on a Mac at the time.
Except that I didn’t click to anything else, it launched automatically and I test it. Even if YoVille is not to blame, it only happens while on the YoVille application and not anywhere else on FaceBook. I don’t know the code specifics to this “Malware” crap, but I know enough to stay away from it. Thanks for your input, junior…