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You have 1 lost message on Facebook (e-mail scam)

A new Facebook scam e-mail is going around claiming that you have a new message, but that it somehow got lost.
Written by Emil Protalinski, Contributor

Facebook scammers are once again trying to pique your curiosity by leveraging your excitement about getting a notification on the social network. This time, they are claiming that you have a new message on Facebook, but via some terrible tragedy, it got lost.

This version says something along the lines of "Facebook sent you a notification" and "You have 1 lost message on Facebook, to recover a message follow the link below:" followed by a link that takes you to a spam site. There's even a " FAQ: Can you recieve messages if your inbox is full?" followed by a "Frequently Asked Questions" button. Everything is stylized like a Facebook e-mail, but Sophos notes that the link unsurprisingly takes you a site which recommends you questionable products for purchase.

It's worth noting that the people behind this spam and scam campaign could change where the link leads to. They can modify where you will be redirected to depending on what type of browser or operating system you are running, and/or where you are based in the world. The most obvious and arguably worst case would be a phishing site designed to steal your Facebook username and password by providing you with a fake login screen.

The scammers' goal is to drive more traffic towards certain sites. This is how the scammer earns his or her money: a commission for every survey completed, every product purchased, or every account compromised. They also use them to spread malware and obtain personal information.

As I've recommended before, if you see a scam like this one, mark the email as junk. You can even contact Facebook Security if you'd like to.

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