Facebook Phishers, Spammers and Adware, Oh My

It was bound to happen. Phishers are putting fake wall posts on Facebook profile pages. When you click the link, you’re redirected to a fake Facebook login page. Type in your user name and password and voila, it’s now in the hands of the phisher. Not cool.

Meanwhile, some unscrupulous application developers are tricking people into installing apps they don’t want. Facebook is trying to stop this behavior, according to a post on its Developer Blog.

And a Facebook app called Secret Crush reportedly tricks users into downloading adware to their computer. This is particularly worrisome because Facebook members routinely install apps on a whim, without knowing much or anything about the developers behind them. As Fortinet states in its description of the rogue app: “In a digital world where web traffic equals money, such a user base attracts spammers, virus/spyware seeders, and other ethic-less online marketers like honey would attract flies.”

If Facebook doesn’t stop all of this activity in its tracks, the app business will be in big trouble.

UPDATE: Zango, the advertising company named by Fortinet in the “Secret Crush” investigation, is denying any involvement with the matter.

Too Much Noise in the Widget Marketplace

Thinking about adding widgets and Web applications to your online marketing strategy this year? Then your head is probably spinning. I haven’t seen this many companies falling all over themselves for a piece of the action since the late 1990s.

Which brings me to this article in Forbes. According to data in the article from Adonomics, which tracks installs and users of widgets, there are 100,000 companies worldwide developing widgets. Widgets and applications already in use — such as FunWall, Super Wall and Scrabulous — have a combined market value of $374 million, the article says.

Of course, Adonomics — owned by Altura Ventures, the “first Facebook-only VC,” according to its Web site — would naturally want to promote the widget marketplace to the fullest.

But even at half that market value, this fledgling widget/application economy is looking pretty robust. Now, it’s up to the developers to find concrete ways to monetize all those Zombie downloads.