Group-IB, a global threat hunting and adversary-centric cyber intelligence company, has detected a large-scale scam campaign targeting Facebook Messenger users all over the world.

Group-IB Digital Risk Protection (DRP) analysts have found evidence proving that users in over 80 countries in Europe, Asia, the MEA region, North and South America might have been affected, the company said in a release. "By distributing ads promoting an allegedly updated version of Facebook Messenger, cybercriminals harvested users' login credentials," the company said.

The cyber intelligence company has discovered about 1,000 fake Facebook accounts distributing links to an allegedly updated version of Facebook Messenger. Users who followed the link would then be redirected to a fake Facebook Messenger website with a login form, through which cyber criminals harvested users' credentials.

According to the intelligence company, scammers used official Facebook logos and shortened link names that resembled the real ones. Group-IB said that the social media giant itself has nothing to do with the scheme.

The scale of the scam has grown substantially over the past several months, the company noted. As of April, investigative team found 5,600 Facebook posts inviting users to install the fake "latest Messenger update," Sputnik reported.