So even though tons of folks are getting hit by Facebook and Twitter viruses and spam and information for combatting them is widely out there (I hope), I thought I’d share this as a public service.

It started when I logged in and reviewed recent notifications:

Which one of these is not like the other? They all look like typical “so and so commented on your/someone’s status” alerts. 

But check again. The 2nd one has no icon. And “your status” is the link instead of just the word “status.”

I should have stopped there and realized what was going on, but no, I clicked on the link and got this:

And before my drug-addled brain could stop my fingers, I forgot what I was doing and clicked “Allow.” Where I landed might as well have screamed “Gotcha!!!” I think it did.

Yes, there’s a reason the nurses left me with instructions not to make any major decisions or operate machinery today.

So I quickly changed my Facebook password to another secure/unguessable combination of letters (thank you, as always, 1Password…you rock). I went through every single application that I’ve authorized in Facebook and removed anything looking even slightly suspicious (and trashed a few legit stupid/useless ones while I was at it).

It appears that this app is more annoying than malicious, but I’m not taking any chances…especially since the friend who “sent” me the notification does not appear to be using it. Maybe she got wise to it as well. Apologies to any of my Facebook friends for whom my actions weren’t fast enough. Hope this blog post serves as explanation.

Back to resting away from the keyboard before I hurt someone.