Sophos Cloud Optix
Criminals and scammers on Facebook aren’t resting on their laurels… in fact, they are branching out and using multiple techniques all rolled into one scam.
Tonight’s blockbuster spam is taking on several guises. One version is a likejacking attack that spams your wall with the message “Dad walks in on daughter… EMBARRASING!!!” and “This really has to be an awkward moment.”
They seem to be quickly rotating through a long list of Google (goo.gl) short URLs to evade detection.
Strangely, it appears that the likejacking protection Facebook introduced last month is not working. At the moment the page has over 49,000 likes and is growing.
A variation of the same scam seemingly aimed at a more international audience pretends to be from BBC News. It is an application using variations of the word news or newz.
It posts messages to your wall saying “Everyone do check what she did on cam ….” and seems to also play on the recent spate of photo tagging scams.
All of this ultimately leads to an obviously faked video on YouTube, covered by a survey scam. The video on YouTube has over 77,000 views, implying that many people are filling out the surveys that generate cash for the scammers.
As with all of these different Facebook lures, try to resist the temptation to click them, and be sure to click the report spam button to alert the Facebook security team.
Sophos has a guide for configuring your Facebook profile to maintain your privacy and continue to be social. Why not give it a look and check your settings against our advice?
To stay up to date on the latest scams, spams and other security and privacy advice join our Facebook page.
These scams seem obvious to me, but I've been in IT for almost 20 years, so I suppose I have a head start on the average user. The look of the posts, who they come from, the link (goo.gl – come on!) – just all adds up to a scam / spam link to me. I always tell my friends – if you aren't sure of the link, just don't bother clicking!
Yeah, I don't quite get it either. I can spot them from a mile a way. Guess people are just a bit more inquisitive than logical.
Me too! I always check the link first, and if it passes first examination, I open another browser (one not logged into accounts of any kind) and then try it. But I often times just Google it to see if it is a real link.
Some people seriously need to get a life.
When it’s something to get a person’s attention and there’s a link and the link leads to an unsecured application, common sense says it’s a scam!
I have been telling people all day about these. They are spreading like crazy too. People can be so naive!
Just the spelling should ring warning bells: "embarrasing", not to mention the multiple screams… as in tweenager writing to chums with superfluous exclamation marks. Embarrassing to fall for it alright and yet how many people out there can spell, are familiar with grammatical rules or pause before they respond to stimuli on Facebook in a Pavlovian way?
Yet at the same time who are they targeting? For example I have kids from 9-15 on facebook that are work mates kids. They use facebook and they use words like "gurls/iRite/Bcuz" Things like that with maybe a few words spelled correctly. They kids can spell but its internet slang that is a hard habbit to stop….I love to LOL on pages. But I think they stop targeting adults since kids are more easy to trick or the fact they think its harmless. One of them told me "I don't carez if they take my info im only a kid they gonna by beerz with my ID or w/e" Kind of childish responce but at the same time. Thats what they seem to be targeting. Lets face it Facebook was for college students now its like myspace befor tom sold it and adverts spam the hell out of the thing….poor choice since because of that reason I and many others left. Now facebook is for every one that has internet.
You've gotta remember that the majority of people clicking these links are probably teenage boys…. even if they knew it was a scam, they would probably fill out the survey anyway in hopes of seeing some boobies
yeah you are right, it's not as if they can type boobies into google anyway……
What are you supposed to do if it won't stop tagging you in a photo?
deactivate your account? I did mine
Why do people put up with ads on Facebook
There are many ad blockers available for Facebook.
Just block the ads and you never see them again.
If you can't see them, you can't interact with them
therefore they can't trap you into clicking on them.