Sunday, June 19, 2011

New Facebook scam

There's a new Facebook scam actively spreading.

Titles as "Monstrously Erotic blonde", "This chick is awesomely crazy" and "Shows her boobs on national TV!" may appeal to the imagination.

Here's some examples:
Example #1

Example #2


Example #3

However, if you click on the link, it will not take you to a Blogger page but instead will redirect you right away to a page where you can see the "video":


You need to click "Jaa" twice to confirm you're over 18



It looks like a legit Facebook page and a Youtube video, but in fact it is all fake. If you click on "Jaa" (which appears to be Finnish for "Share"), you'll see the following page:


Ultimately you need to fill in a survey to see the video


Haven't we seen this type of scam before on Facebook ?
It is similar to the "See who stalks you on Facebook" application that was pretty viral some months ago.
I also made a blog post back then:
http://bartblaze.blogspot.com/2011/02/facebook-rogue-applications-still.html

You need to fill in a survey to see the video. Of course you might be attracted by the chance of winning an iPhone, but it is all fake.

The purpose of these scams are for you to send expensive text messages to 'unlock' the video. Don't be fooled, you'll only lose money by sending text messages !
Additionally, it will also make the same post on your wall (subject & link may vary), so your friends are targeted as well.




Prevention

Pretty straightforward: do not click on any of these links, how tempting they might be ! Ask your friend if he or she knows what it means, and slightly hover over the post until the 'X' becomes visible. You can then mark the post as spam, and it will be removed from your friend's wall.

It might also help to install the WOT extension into your browser. (Compatible with most modern browsers)
WOT is a community-based tool and is therefore very useful for these kinds of scams, whereas other users can warn you about the validity.
More information and to download WOT: http://www.mywot.com/




Conclusion

Although it's been a while since I encountered these types of scams, keep in mind that they may pop-up on your wall one day.

If so, follow the prevention tips mentioned above and all should be fine.


5 comments:

  1. my friend got it too on her wall, thanks for the tip

    ReplyDelete
  2. saw one today but a different video and title, less exaggerated and looked like a french news story or something. Thanks Bart for the heads up.

    ReplyDelete
  3. do you happen to have a sample of new FB malware? one which says "It is you on the video"

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Sunil, have not seen this campaign yet. I will let you know if I stumble upon it though.

    ReplyDelete