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Facebook users complain of hijacked accounts

Hackers have reportedly compromised popular networking site Facebook leaving users complaining of a sharp increase in spam, it has been reported.

According to the International Herald Tribune, several Facebook users got in touch with the newspaper to report anomalies on the website including hijacked accounts and deactivated users.

The attacks were reportedly linked to Koobface, a worm which has 27 variants according to Kaspersky, which was linked to attacks on Facebook and MySpace users in late July.

In a statement, Facebook admitted to receiving complaints on phishing attacks but played down the threats and sought to reassure users by saying the problems were under control and the worm had been "contained".

"We are investigating every report, removing false content, blocking bogus links and addressing the concerns of our users. These efforts have limited the affected users to a small percentage of those on Facebook," it said.

Facebook and Bebo, another networking site, were in the news recently in Australia when the government warned users of the dangers posed by posting private information on the websites, which can lead to ID theft.

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