Posts Tagged ‘Osama BinLaden’

A spider under the skin? It’s a Facebook survey scam

Published by pratyushkp on July 13th, 2011 - in Social, Technology

Image via Wikipedia

Everyone knows that a fear of spiders is arachnophobia.

Maybe it’s time that we had an official word for a dislike of Facebook survey scams too? There are certainly plenty of people over on the Naked Security page on Facebook who are fed to the back teeth with the scams that spread virally across the social network, tricking users into taking surveys and earning the scammers money.

Here’s the latest – which claims to be a disgusting video of a spider under someone’s skin.

A spider under the skin!
[LINK]
Omg so disgusting :s

Clicking on the link takes you to a webpage which pretends that it is about to show you the video, but insists that you verify your age first.

However, clicking “Jaa” doesn’t confirm your age at all. It actually shares the message about the spider with your other Facebook friends (“Jaa” is the Finnish word for “Share”, and there has been a trend lately with survey scams to use this subterfuge).

If you make the mistake of sharing the link with your online pals, you will then be taken to a survey, overlaid over a pretend YouTube page.

The scammers earn commission for each survey completed, but they don’t want to tell you that as it may make you more reluctant to participate. Instead they fraudulently pretend that it is a YouTube age verification dialog.

If you got hit by this scam, make sure you have removed the entries from your news feed (to stop them being shared amongst your friends) and check your profile has not any unwanted “Likes” under your “Likes and interests”.

Source :- http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com

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Ex girlfriend Facebook scams use shocking imagery, but spread quickly

Published by pratyushkp on July 4th, 2011 - in Social, Technology

Image by jepoirrier via Flickr

It’s turning into quite a bad weekend for Facebook with chain letters, phishing attacks and now the promise of hardcore videos being used to spread scams virally across the social network.

The following messages are currently appearing very rapidly. We’ve had to obscure the thumbnails as many people will find them disturbing.

Here’s what the messages typically say:

[Video] - This is what Happend to his Ex GirlFriend!
[LINK]
Play Video! She could not walk properly for days!

and

Look what he did after her Ex girlfriend posted on his wall
[LINK]
lol What true pain both are having at this moment.?

Of course, there are people out there who find such links too tempting to resist. Here’s what they’ll see when they click on the link.

It’s the latest in a series of Facebook scams which ask you to click on the word “Jaa”.

The victims probably don’t realise that “Jaa” is Finnish for “Share”, and they’re helping the scam spread to their online Facebook friends. Typically such scams end up with you being taken to an online survey that will earn the scammer money.

Can I respectfully suggest that if you keep falling for scams like this, you try and get your kicks elsewhere on the internet? There’s plenty of photos and videos of naked ladies out on the web which you can peruse at your leisure, without the risk of flooding the newsfeeds of your Facebook friends.

I’ve informed Facebook Security about this latest fast-spreading family of scams. Let’s hope they can take swift and decisive action so their users are no longer at risk.

If you got hit by this scam, make sure you have removed the entries from your news feed (to stop them being shared amongst your friends) and check your profile has not any unwanted “Likes” under your “Likes and interests”.

Source :- http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com

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Did a photographer commit suicide after shooting a video? No, it’s a Facebook scam

Published by pratyushkp on June 24th, 2011 - in Social, Technology

Scams continue to be a problem on Facebook, and the latest uses a ghoulish lure that we have seen before.

Messages are spreading rapidly on the social network claiming to be of a video that a photographer took three days before he committed suicide.

Or “commited” suicide, as the scam incorrectly spells it.

Photographer commited SUICIDE 3 days after shooting THIS video!
[LINK]
This really must have been an awkward moment.

Hmm.. does that story about a photographer committing suicide ring any bells? Well, it should do if you’re a regular reader of the Naked Security site as a year ago we told you about a similar scam, although on that occasion it was claimed that a horrific photo (not a video) had caused a man to kill himself.

The story had *some* basis in truth back then, although not much. The photograph used in last year’s scam showed an emaciated young girl in Sudan and was taken in March 1993 by prize-winning South African photo-journalist Kevin Carter. Carter did kill himself – but it was over a year later in South Africa, not three days after the photo was taken as claimed by the scam last year.

Anyway, time has moved on – and now the messages on Facebook claim that a video has caused a man to kill himself.

So, what happens if you click on the link? Where is your browser taken?

Look familiar? Have you seen that “Jaa” button before? Well, you should have done as it’s a very similar ploy to the “Amazing Orgasm” Facebook scam that we saw spreading on Facebook last week.

“Jaa”, if you remember, is Finnish for “Share” – which should give you all the clues you need to realise that the scammers are tricking you into Sharing and Liking the video to spread it to your Facebook friends and family.

The reason they want you to do that is so that you will drive more traffic towards their online surveys – the scammers earn money the more people who complete these, and maybe you or your friends will be tempted to spend some time answering questions in the belief that you will see a morbid video at the end of it.

So you really should take much more care over which pages you agree to “Like” on Facebook. Remember, you should never be coerced into publicising a Facebook page before they have shown you the content you are interested in. After all, if you like what you see, you’ll only be too happy to share it with your friends, right?

If you got hit by this scam, make sure you have removed the entries from your news feed (to stop them being shared amongst your friends) and check your profile has not any unwanted “Likes” under your “Likes and interests”.

Source :- http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com

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The Amazing Orgasm Facebook scam (NSFW) – don’t think with your trousers

Published by pratyushkp on June 20th, 2011 - in Social, Technology

The latest survey scam to spread successfully on Facebook is clearly targeting people who have so much blood flowing to their loins that the supply to their brains has been cut off.

It seems when faced with the prospect of seeing a video of a woman having an “amazing orgasm“, common sense goes out of the window for some people and they click the link without thinking of the possible consequences.

Here is the message that is spreading between Facebook users (I’ve pixelated out parts of the image so as not to offend anyone):

Amazing Orgasm
[LINK]

And here’s an alternative version:

The links point to pages on Blogspot, where you will then be redirected to a webpage which presents you with what appears to be a sexy YouTube video of what is claimed to be an “Overly Dramatic Orgasm”.

The only thing is that they want you to click a couple of times (sharing and liking the video to your Facebook friends) before they’ll let you watch. Curiously, the messages are in Finnish (“Jaa” is Finnish for “Share”). Could the scammer who set up this particular attack be Finnish?

You probably won’t be surprised to hear that the purpose of the whole scam is to earn money – through tricking users into taking online surveys. And through your clicking on the links, you have helped promote the survey (via the sexy video lure) to your online friends.

My feeling is that the last thing you’re probably in the mood to do, if you want to watch a sexy video, is fill out an online survey. But that’s precisely the kind of social engineering lure that appears to work on so many occasions.

Don’t think with your trousers, show some common sense. I wish when you logged into Facebook it said, alongside asking for your email address and password, “Have you had a cold shower in the last 20 minutes?”

Maybe then folks would show a little more common sense when they see one of these sexy messages appear on their newsfeed.

What are you doing if you’re clicking on this kind of thing from your work computer anyway? Content like that which these links promise is definitely NSFW (not safe for work).

Source :- http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com

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