Why are you tagged in this video? It's a viral Facebook scam

by Graham Cluley on May 16, 2011 | 2 Comments

Filed Under: Facebook, Social networks, Spam

Facebook users have been hit by another fast-spreading scam today, pretending to be a link to a YouTube video that they have been tagged in.

Facebook video scam

The scam messages use potential victims' first names, claiming that they have been tagged in the "Youtube" video.

Phrases used in the attack include:

YO [name] why are you tagged in this video

WTF!! [name] why are you tagged in this video

hey [name] i cant believe youre tagged in this video

hey [name] you look so stupid in this video

omg! [name] why are you tagged in this vid

OMG [name] why are you in this video

OMG [name] you should untag yourself in this video

Each "video" has a random number of views and likes, but the length of the movie always appears to be 2:34. Eagle-eyed Facebook users might realise something is awry when they see that the links refer to "Youtube" rather than the rather more accurate "YouTube".

But if you do make the mistake of clicking on the video thumbnail you will be taken to a webpage which tries to trick you into cutting-and-pasting a malicious JavaScript code into your browser's address bar (this appears to be one of the scammers' favourite methods of attack at the moment).

You have to concede, it's a cunning piece of social engineering by the bad guys. Wouldn't you want to see a video that your Facebook friends say you have been tagged in?

If you're a regular user of Facebook, make sure you join the Sophos page on Facebook to be kept informed of the latest security threats.

Hat tip: Thanks to Naked Security reader Ken for sending us a tip about this latest Facebook attack.

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2 Responses to Why are you tagged in this video? It's a viral Facebook scam

  1. Imogen says:
    May 16, 2011 at 11:11 pm

    This popped up on my facebook as:
    "ROTFL (name) you should untag yourself from this vid"

    Thanks for posting!

    Reply Report comment
  2. Alex says:
    May 17, 2011 at 8:01 pm

    fyi, just saw a segment on cnbc where they were discussing facebook scams, apparently the blonde Melissa Frances and Herb Greenberg got pawned. They also showed the sophos blog.

    Reply Report comment

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About the author

Graham Cluley has worked in the computer security industry for more than 20 years, developing anti-virus software and doing quite a lot of talking about internet threats. He's won awards for his blogging, but is proudest of the text adventure games he wrote when he was still wearing short trousers. You can learn more about those (the games, not the trousers) at grahamcluley.com. Send Graham an email, subscribe to his updates on Facebook, follow him on Twitter and App.net, and circle him on Google Plus for regular updates.