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Crooks flood Facebook with fake profiles

Internet users have been warned to be wary of new profiles on social networking site Facebook as cyber crooks are increasingly using the platform to expose users to online threats, reports say.

According to online security firm Cloudmark, up to 40 per cent of the new profiles could be fake as spammers and malware writers are behind the registrations that give them access to other end users, reports vnunet.com.

The cyber crooks are using the fake profiles to post links to malicious websites on other people's Walls or blogs, according to Neil Cook, European head of technology services at Cloudmark.

He told the website: "Social networks are very collaborative so it's great for spammers and virus writers to attack. As soon as social networking took off, so did the attacks."

This is not the first time such a warning has been issued. Last month Trend Micro stated that cyber crooks were using fake networks including blogs advertising pornography video links to lure end users.

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