A new rogue application is spamming users of the social network Facebook and exposing their personal information as well as communications from their friends.

According to Sophos, claiming that the users have been reported for “violating our Terms of Service,” the application sends phony emails to their contacts saying: “F a c e b o o k - closing down!!! This is your official warning! Click here to find out why you were reported!”

And, the moment the users click the given link, not only do the hackers get access to the users’ profile and personal information, the phony message also gets forwarded to everyone in the users’ contact list.

Sophos’ senior technology consultant, Graham Cluley, said in a blog that the latest spam attacks have apparently been designed to benefit from the fact that Facebook is being scrutinized for its terms of service.

Though Facebook claims to have removed the application, other similar bogus applications – ‘My account’ and ‘Reported For Rule Breaking’ – have started making rounds on the site.

In an email, Facebook spokesman Simon Axten said: “Our team disabled this application for violating the Facebook Developer Terms of Service. Some additional versions of it have sprung up, and we’ve disabled these as well. We’re actively monitoring the site for others and are working to block the application completely.”