Warning as Bitcoin virus hits Facebook Messenger app

A VIRUS that turns victims’ computers into a crypto-currency miner without their knowledge is spreading across Facebook Messenger, security experts have warned.

The malware, named “Digmine”, appears to have originated in South Korea and affects desktop versions of the app when running on a Google Chrome browser, according to researchers at Trend Micro.

“If the user’s Facebook account is set to log in automatically, Digmine will manipulate Facebook Messenger in order to send a link to the file to the account’s friends,” they wrote in a blogpost.

Mining a Bitcoin eats up a lot of power and so it has become lucrative for criminal gangs to infect computers en masse to do the job, earning them crypto-currency in return.

Facebook said: “We maintain a number of automated systems to help stop harmful links and files from appearing on Facebook and in Messenger.”