The phishing e-mail, which is very much similar to the authentic friend requests, contains a message, which states that the receiver has been invited by a friend on Facebook. The e-mail message also includes an invitation to join the social networking website.

Commenting on the matter, Robert Pregnell, Security Channel Product Manager at Symantec, stated that, the email can be recognized as a bogus one as it doesn't include any confirm button and there is no email address, which could signed up to the website, as reported by ComputerWorld on January 11, 2011. He further added that, they are not sure whether this specific e-mail is a high-profile attack.

Pregnell stated that the security firm Symantec is continuously monitoring samples of such type of phishing e-mails that target famous social networking website regularly as a part of attackers' continuing activity in attempting new methods and tricks.

Remarkably, not only Symantec is informing about this scam that is presently attacking Australian Facebook users. Even security vendor McAfee is also alerting netizens regarding this scam.

Michael Sentonas, Asia Pacific Chief Technology Officer at the security firm McAfee stated that, currently, there is one more scam, which is making rounds on the internet and encloses malware ridden apps along with other scams that states that, Facebook will shut down in March (2011), as reported by ComputerWorld on January 11, 2011.

As a matter of fact, the above mentioned statement that Facebook is shutting down is speedily circulating across the web world. According to security researchers, nearly, 125,000 netizens had clicked on bogus links related to this fake news, which was being circulated by 10 variant malicious applications.

The malicious attack is also being circulated through Twitter posts with direct links or attachments to the malware ridden Facebook apps. Any netizen that authorized the malware ridden application would then observe the attack posted to their Facebook wall, thereby completing the scam.

Finally, to avoid being infected with such kind of malicious phishing attacks that are presently infecting popular social networking websites, users are being recommended to install efficient anti-virus security software.