MOSCOW, December 16. /TASS/. A number of Russian Facebook users reported on Tuesday that a new virus was spreading through the global social network via e-mail and instant messages.

The virus sends a message that says “OMG!” or “Private Video” and claims to contain a link of a private video allegedly published by some of the user's friends. Clicking on the link, the user becomes infected with malware and malicious messages are being sent to the affected user’s friends.

“Security is Facebook’s top priority and we commit considerable resources to help people protect their own profiles and information,” the Facebook Russia press service said. “Facebook has special commands focusing on protection of people’s profiles and cybercrime prevention.”

“We have developed multiple tools that enable us to block and delete spam,” the press service told TASS. “Some of these instruments prevent the spread of links among people while others help to clear the profile after the attack. We are also working with partners in the sphere of anti-virus protection to improve the process.”

“Besides, we hope that people will report spam to us, when they see it on their pages,” the press service added. “As soon as we receive these complaints, we consider them briefly and content is erased if it has been identified as spam.”

Facebook is the world’s largest social network with over 1.19 billion monthly active users. In 2013, the US-based company posted revenues of $7.87 billion, of which $1.5 billion were pure profits.