Facebook Virus

What is Facebook?

Facebook Virus is a generic name for all Facebook social network-related viruses. The list of Facebook-related malware is rather long. These viruses are typically proliferated via Facebook messenger - criminals hijack random user accounts and proliferate viruses via private messages. Note that the behavior of these viruses is not identical.

As mentioned above, extensive malware is distributed via the Facebook social network. Although behavior differs, most of this malware has at least one thing in common: it typically records sensitive data (keystrokes, logins/passwords, etc.) We also stated that these viruses are typically proliferated using random user accounts.

Cyber criminals design malicious scripts to hijack Facebook accounts and send various links to all contacts. In most cases, these links appear legitimate, since criminals also insert text and emojis to make the messages more believable and friendly.

In fact, after clicking these links, users' friends often visit malicious websites or execute other scripts that infect their computers and web browsers. In some cases, users are redirected to fraudulent sites that offer "fantastic deals", however, criminals employ these sites only to to extort money from unsuspecting users and/or steal confidential information.

In addition, some Facebook viruses are distributed using posts on Facebook walls. Hijacked Facebook accounts post deceptive posts on their (or friends') timelines, however, as with private messages, these posts also contain links to malicious sites. The result is identical.

An older, popular example of a Facebook virus is "Ryanair Scam". First released in 2016, the scam model is simple: users receive a message stating that the Ryanair airline is celebrating its 35th birthday and, therefore, users can supposedly win tickets for two free flights.

This company was founded in 1994 and, thus, at time of the "Raynair Scam" release, the airline was 32-years-old. The post contains a fake boarding pass with the Ryanair logo and redirects to a variety of other malicious sites that encourage users to fill in forms requiring personal details.

Unsuspecting users are often tricked and actually provide this information, thereby putting their privacy at risk - cyber criminals can easily misuse personal data (e.g., banking information, etc.) with the intention of generating revenue.

Another popular Facebook virus is called "Ray Ban Scam". Criminals proliferate private messages with malicious links that promote dubious websites that supposedly sell Ray Ban eye-wear at very low prices, however, after submitting payment, users receive nothing in return and lose their money.

In most cases, users infected with this virus have a type of 'keygen' (which gathers various passwords and sends them to cyber criminals' servers) installed on their computers.

This malware also employs hijacked accounts to promote these websites (for example, it creates events, chat groups, posts deals on the timeline, and tags victims' friends, etc.) In the case of such an infection, immediately change your account passwords and cancel all submitted payments/transactions.

First noticed in South Korea, the most recent (and probably, most sophisticated) Facebook Virus is designed to infect computers with cryptocurrency-mining malware called Digmine. The malware, however, is now considered to be a worldwide problem. Cyber criminals spread Digmine via private messages.

It only targets users using the Google Chrome web browser or Messenger desktop applications (users with mobile devices cannot be infected). Criminals hijack user accounts and send a message to all contacts. The message contains a "video_[random_digits].zip" file (e.g., "video_5833.zip").

Other users are typically tricked into believing that it is a compressed video file, however, it is a malicious executable that, once opened, connects to developers' Command and Control (C&C) server and starts the infection chain, essentially downloading a number of files (malicious Google Chrome attachments and Digmine miner).

The program then stealthily install the malicious extensions and runs or re-runs Google Chrome (note that it only works if the user maintains the "Stay Logged In" feature). In addition, the script configures auto-run settings for Digminer, so it automatically runs on each system boot. The extension is used to continually spread the malicious zip file.

Furthermore, Digmine misuses system resources to mine Monero cryptocurrency. All these actions are performed without users' consent. In addition, mining consumes many system resources, reducing response times to the point where the system becomes impossible to use, whilst other applications crash or do not even load.

If your computer has been infected with this malware, immediately reset the Google Chrome browser (malicious extensions typically prevent users from removing installed plug-ins and, thus, resetting is the best option) and scan your system with a legitimate anti-virus suite. We also recommend that you read the article, cryptocurrency-mining viruses.

How did Facebook viruses infiltrate my computer?

As mentioned above, Facebook viruses are often distributed via private messages or deceptive Facebook posts. Both typically contain links to malicious websites or scripts (stored on various servers).

Many users click links, especially when they are sent or posted by close friends. Clicking links promoted by Facebook viruses exposes systems to risk of various infections and compromises users' privacy.

How to avoid installation of malware?

To prevent this situation, be very cautious when opening pages promoted on Facebook. If a friend sends a private message or posts a suspicious link on your Facebook wall, you are strongly advised to demand confirmation if the link is legitimate. Message your friend to ensure that you only visit legitimate sites - if the friend does not respond, never click any promoted link.

Note that these messages typically include a personal text or images (e.g., your profile picture). For example, it may say "Hey *user name*, is it really you?" together with a link leading to an unknown website. Criminals include this kind of text to make spam messages appear legitimate. You are also advised to use account-security tips given by Facebook Support.

Keep your installed applications up-to-date and use a legitimate anti-virus/anti-spyware suite. The key to computer safety is caution. If you believe that your computer is already infected, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.

List of examples of other Facebook viruses:

"Congratulations! Your profile has been selected by Facebook" Scam;
"Your page will be unpublished" Virus;
Facebook "Following Me" Scam;
Facebook "hahaha" Virus;
Facebook Automatic Wall Post Virus;
Facebook Change Color Virus;
Facebook Child Porn Virus;
Facebook French Tech Support Scam;
Facebook Friend Request Virus ;
Facebook Message Virus;
Facebook Money Scam;
Facebook Stalker Virus;
Facebook Suspension Virus;
Facebook Video Virus;
Faceliker Virus;
Invitation Facebook Virus;
Jayden K. Smith Scam;

Screenshots of deceptive posts promoting various Facebook viruses or scams:

Screenshot of a malicious website which is disguised as a genuine Facebook login page. After clicking various links users are redirected to similar pages which ask to "confirm the identity" by logging in. Websites of this type save entered login/password in a database and cyber criminals instantly gain access to victim's account.

Malicious websites can be distinguished in two main ways: 1) their design might slightly differ from the genuine one, and; 2) the URL address (domain) is random (typically long) string, not the genuine facebook.com (see the example below):

Text presented within this website:

Facebook Account Confirmation

Dear user,
Your Facebook account must be confirmed today in order to avoid disabling! This process is quick and must be done by all of our users as an extra security measure. If you fail to confirm your account today it will be limited and then disabled!

Screenshot of the second page of the same site:

Example of a Facebook-themed spam email which promotes a questionable site (a1bum_fac3book.es-es[.]icu):

Text presented within:

Subject: Facebook - A sua conta foi temporariamente bloqueada por razões de segurança

Facebook
Caro utilizador,

Alguém noticiou recentemente uma foto no seu álbum do Facebook.

Os dados de imagem comunicados: IMG_20170103_162800.jpg - Data: 21/06/2020 às 15:50

Uma imagem no seu álbum foi acusada de conter conteúdo inadequado. Se não concordar que o conteúdo é inadequado ou pornográfico, acesse o link e remova a bandeira de violação ou de objecção.

Ao acessar o link, você terá acesso ao usuário que denunciou seu álbum.

Faça login no  link  abaixo para remover o sinalizador de violação imediatamente.

VER IMAGEM RELATADA
 
INFORMAÇÕES DO RECLAMANTE

Facebook, Inc. ATTN: Privacy Operations 1601 Willow Road Menlo Park, CA 94025

How to remove malware manually?

Most trojan infections can be removed by running a full system scan with Combo Cleaner. The full manual procedure below is for cases where automatic removal failed, where you want to verify a scan caught everything, or where the threat has multiple persistence points.

Tools you'll need

Combo Cleaner Antivirus 7-days free trial

Recommended primary scanner. VB100 certified. The 7-day free trial is available.

Microsoft Defender Offline Free · built-in

Built into Windows. Boots to a clean environment to catch rootkits.

Process Explorer Free

From Microsoft Sysinternals. Better than Task Manager - shows full paths and signatures.

Autoruns Free

From Microsoft Sysinternals. Lists every place malware can persist on your system.

Microsoft Safety Scanner (MSERT) Free

Official Microsoft on-demand scanner. Always-current signatures - expires every 10 days.

Phase 1~ 5 min

Contain - limit the damage

---

1

Disconnect from the network

30 secNo tool needed

Unplug your Ethernet cable and turn off Wi-Fi. If you're on a laptop, the airplane-mode key works fastest.

Why this matters

Many trojans exfiltrate data - saved browser passwords, banking sessions, screenshots - and accept remote commands. Cutting the network stops both immediately. Keep it disconnected until Phase 4.

2

Boot into Safe Mode with Networking

3 min

Safe Mode loads a minimal set of drivers and stops most malware from auto-running. "With Networking" lets you download tools - re-enable Wi-Fi only after you've booted in.

Windows 11

Open Settings → System → Recovery. Click Restart now next to Advanced startup.

Your computer will restart into the "Choose an option" menu. Click Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Startup Settings → Restart. After the second reboot, press 5 or F5.

Windows 10

Click the Windows logo, hold Shift, click the Power icon and choose Restart. In the Choose an option screen, click Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Startup Settings → Restart. Press F5.

Windows 8

Go to the Start Screen, type Advanced, select Settings → Advanced startup options → Restart now → Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Startup settings → Restart → F5.

Note: Windows 8 reached end-of-life in January 2023 - running on it puts you at much higher risk of reinfection.

Windows 7

Click Start → Shut Down → Restart → OK. As the system boots, press F8 repeatedly until the Windows Advanced Options menu appears, then choose Safe Mode with Networking.

Note: Windows 7 reached end-of-life in January 2020 - running on it puts you at much higher risk of reinfection.

Phase 2~ 15 min

Identify - find what's hiding

---

3

Inspect running processes with Process Explorer

Tool: Process Explorer5 min

Download Process Explorer from Microsoft Sysinternals. Run it as Administrator. Click Options → Verify Image Signatures and View → Lower Pane View → DLLs.

Sort by "Verified Signer." Anything unsigned running from %AppData%, %LocalAppData%, %Temp%, or %ProgramData% is suspicious. Right-click → Properties to see the full image path. Right-click → "Search Online" to look up unfamiliar process names.

Why not just Task Manager

Task Manager hides full file paths, doesn't show digital signatures, and groups processes in ways that make malware easy to miss. Process Explorer is the same tool Microsoft engineers use.

4

Map every persistence point with Autoruns

Tool: Autoruns 14.x10 min

Download Autoruns. Right-click Autoruns.exe and choose Run as administrator - without elevation, Autoruns can't inspect protected registry hives.

In the menu, open Options → Hide Microsoft Entries and Options → Hide Empty Locations, then click Refresh.

Modern trojans don't just live in startup. Walk through these tabs and look for unsigned or unfamiliar entries:

• Logon - classic Run/RunOnce keys
• Scheduled Tasks - frequent hiding spot, especially tasks with PowerShell, MSHTA, or rundll32 actions
• Services - unsigned services in non-Microsoft folders
• WMI - Event Subscriptions are a stealthy persistence mechanism (MITRE T1546.003)
• Image Hijacks - Image File Execution Options "Debugger" abuse
• AppInit - DLLs loaded into every GUI process
• Browser plug-ins - unsigned add-ons across all installed browsers

Pro tip

Right-click any suspicious entry → "Jump to Image" to see the actual file. Right-click → "Search Online" opens VirusTotal for the file hash. Don't delete yet - just write down the file paths and entry names. We'll remove them after the scans.

5

Check the hosts file and DNS settings

3 minBuilt into Windows

Trojans often redirect bank, antivirus, and update domains to attacker-controlled servers by editing the hosts file or DNS settings.

Hosts file: Open Notepad as Administrator and open C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts. Legitimate entries are commented with #. Any uncommented IP-to-domain mapping is suspicious - especially redirects for microsoft.com, windowsupdate, or your bank.

DNS settings: Open Command Prompt as Administrator and run ipconfig /all. Confirm your DNS servers point to your ISP, your router, or a known public resolver (Cloudflare 1.1.1.1, Google 8.8.8.8). Then open Settings → Network & internet → [your adapter] → DNS server assignment and verify both DNS and DNS over HTTPS (DoH) settings haven't been hijacked.

Why this matters

A clean PC with hijacked DNS is still a compromised PC. You'll think you're at chase.com and you'll be at the attacker's clone.

Phase 3~ 60-90 min

Remove - three scans, one cleanup

---

No single antivirus catches everything. The order below is intentional: offline scan first (catches rootkits before Windows fully loads), then on-demand scanners on the running system, then manual cleanup of anything they missed.

6

Run Microsoft Defender Offline

Tool: Built into Windows15 min

Reboot to normal Windows. Open Windows Security → Virus & threat protection → Scan options. Select Microsoft Defender Antivirus (offline scan) and click Scan now. Your computer will restart into a stripped-down environment and scan before the full operating system loads.

Why this comes first

Rootkits and bootkits hide from any scanner running on the same Windows session that's already infected. A pre-boot offline scan sees the disk before the malware can hide itself.

Recommended antivirus

Combo Cleaner

VB100 certified. Includes anti-trojan, registry/persistence scanning, anti-spyware in one pass. The 7-day free trial is available.

Download Combo Cleaner

7

Run Combo Cleaner full system scan

Tool: Combo Cleaner20-40 min

Install Combo Cleaner and run a full system scan (not the quick scan). Let it complete fully, review the detected threats, and apply the recommended actions. Combo Cleaner will quarantine known trojans and registry persistence.

8

Run Microsoft Safety Scanner as a second-opinion scan

Tool: Microsoft Safety Scanner15 min

Download Microsoft Safety Scanner (MSERT.exe), Microsoft's free on-demand tool. The binary expires every 10 days, which means every download has the latest signatures. Run a full scan after Combo Cleaner to catch anything one engine alone might miss.

Why a second scan

Different scanning engines catch different threats. Running an additional Microsoft scan after Combo Cleaner is the single most underused verification step in malware removal.

9

Manually remove anything still listed in Autoruns

Tool: Autoruns10 min

Reopen Autoruns. Anything you flagged in Step 4 that's still present hasn't been caught by the automated scans. For each remaining suspicious entry: right-click → Delete in Autoruns (this removes the persistence registration), then navigate to the file path and delete the actual file. Empty the Recycle Bin.

Important

Some malware files reappear after deletion because something else on the system recreates them. If you delete a file and it returns within minutes, you have a remaining persistence point that Autoruns didn't show - usually a service or scheduled task running under SYSTEM. Re-run the scans from Steps 6-8 or proceed to a clean install (see end of guide).

Phase 4~ 15 min

Recover - restore browsers and security

---

10

Reset browsers and clear notification permissions

5 min

Trojans and adware frequently hijack browsers - change the default search engine, install rogue extensions, or grant themselves notification permissions to keep displaying scam pop-ups even after the malware is gone.

• Chrome: visit chrome://settings/reset and click "Restore settings to their original defaults." Then visit chrome://settings/content/notifications and remove any unfamiliar sites.
• Edge: visit edge://settings/reset. Then check edge://settings/content/notifications.
• Firefox: open about:support and click Refresh Firefox (Firefox uses "Refresh," not "Reset"). Then check Settings → Privacy & Security → Permissions → Notifications.

Review installed extensions in each browser and remove anything you don't recognize, especially extensions you didn't install yourself.

11

Re-enable Defender, Tamper Protection, and update everything

10 min

Many trojans disable security software. Open Windows Security → Virus & threat protection → Manage settings and confirm Real-time protection, Cloud-delivered protection, and Tamper Protection are all turned on. Tamper Protection prevents malware from disabling Defender silently.

Then run Windows Update (Settings → Windows Update → Check for updates) and update your browsers and applications. The infection vector that let the trojan in originally usually involves outdated software.

Phase 5~ 15 min + 7 days

Verify & secure

---

12

Change passwords from a clean device

20 min⚠ Critical

If the trojan was an info-stealer (Lumma, RedLine, Vidar, and similar are extremely common), assume every password saved in your browser is compromised. Change them from a different, known-clean device - your phone is fine if it's not infected.

Recommended order:

1. Primary email first - it's the recovery hub for everything else
2. Banking and financial accounts
3. Password manager master password (if you use one)
4. Social media, shopping, and remaining accounts

Where available, enable phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (passkeys / FIDO2 hardware keys / authenticator apps) - SMS-based MFA is bypassable by sophisticated attackers.

13

Verify the clean and monitor for 7 days

5 min + 1 week monitoring

Reconnect to the network and run one final full scan with Combo Cleaner. Open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc) and switch to the Startup apps tab - confirm nothing suspicious has reappeared.

Over the next 7 days, watch for symptom recurrence: unexpected high CPU usage, unknown processes returning, browser redirects, or pop-ups. If anything returns, you missed a persistence point and the procedure needs to be repeated - or you may have a deeper compromise that requires a clean install.

When to clean install Windows instead

Manual removal isn't always the right answer. Reinstalling Windows from scratch is the only way to be 100% certain when:

• The malware reappears after every removal attempt
• A bootkit or UEFI rootkit was detected (this class of threat sits below the operating system and survives a normal Windows reinstall)
• A confirmed credential-theft trojan ran with administrator privileges (Lumma, RedLine, Vidar) - the system likely has multiple unknown payloads
• The PC is used for online banking, business email, or anything where partial doubt isn't acceptable

A clean install is a 30-60 minute process: Windows 11 reinstall via Settings → System → Recovery → Reset this PC → Remove everything → Cloud download. Back up documents to external storage first, scan the backup with Combo Cleaner before restoring it, and reinstall applications fresh - never restore them from a backup of the infected system.

Important: Manual removal requires advanced computer skills. If you're not confident identifying system files from malicious files, run an automated scan with Combo Cleaner and Windows Defender and stop there - that path catches the vast majority of consumer trojans without the risk of breaking Windows by deleting the wrong file.