Man in wheelchair falls down elevator shaft - Facebook clickjacking scam

Filed Under: Clickjacking, Facebook, Social networks, Spam, Vulnerability

A shocking video of a man in a wheelchair falling down an elevator shaft? Is that really what you want to watch?

Well, if it is, then you're just the kind of person that a newly-discovered Facebook scam is looking for.

Messages on the social network have been seen like the following:

Man in wheelchair falls down the elevator shaft *SHOCKING VIDEO*

Man in wheelchair falls down the elevator shaft *SHOCKING VIDEO*
[LINK]
This Video is really shocking. a man in a wheelchair is falling down the elevator shaft.

If you're curious enough to click on the link you are taking to a Facebook page which looks like it is about to show you a video.

Scam page on Facebook

But think twice about clicking on the play button! The webpage will take your mouse click and silently use it to say that you "Like" the page and share it with your friends.

As far as your friends can tell, you've just shared a link to a shocking video of a man in a wheelchair falling down an elevator shaft.

Those people who are running addons like NoScript (on Firefox) will see a page intercepting the clickjacking.

NoScript intercepting the clickjacking

The point of the scam is to draw traffic to online surveys - which earn the scammers commission and, in some cases, tricks users into signing up for premium rate mobile phone services.

Survey scam

If you are hit by a scam like this you should remove the page from the list of pages that your Facebook profile likes. Remember to remove any other pages you don't remember liking at the same time.

The Pages that you like are shown at the bottom of the Info tab, under Activities and Interests. You may have to click on "Other pages you like".

Remove page from your list of likes

Also, remove it from your newsfeed, reporting it as spam to Facebook, so that you no longer share the offending link with your friends.

Report the message as spam

If you're a Facebook user and want to keep up on the latest threats and security news I would recommend you join the Sophos Facebook page - where more than 100,000 people regularly discuss the latest attacks.

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2 Responses to Man in wheelchair falls down elevator shaft - Facebook clickjacking scam

  1. Usama says:

    I'm new here and I liked your blog but ...

    Are you going to publish every Facebook link scam or there is no better way to insert photos of sexy women in security blog?

  2. @PeabodyMews says:

    That video is more laughable than shocking since the guy repeatedly rams the doors till they give way before he falls. Saw it on YouTube quite a time back.

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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.