Facebook Hacks and SMS, Oh My

Video Scam “girl KILLED herself after her DAD saw her doing THIS!”

Steven, one of our researchers, flagged us of this ongoing video scam on Facebook that says “[SHOCKING VIDEO] This girl KILLED herself after her DAD saw her doing THIS!”.

This scam had been spotted as early as the beginning of March 2014 and again that mid-month, but seems to have been left unnoticed until today.

According to the data of the shortened URL this fraud associates with, page visits peaked to more than 50,000 clicks, an all-time high to date.

Taken from its shortened URL statistics

Bar graph data

Similar to several video scams that came before it, this scam starts off with a page akin to a Facebook post layout. Of course, the supposed video and the block of comments below it are image files.

“WARNING: SHOCKING CONTENT”

Clicking the image of the video pops up a window that encourages users to share the post before they can view the clip.

Clicking the “Share” button then does two things: one, it pops up a browser window to open a legitimate Facebook login page (if they’re not logged in yet); two, it directs users to another fake page, asking them to answer a survey—a very common method on how the bad guys monetize from their scams.

The survey scam overlay

If the unknowing user answers the survey, consequently unlocking the video, they are then led to an actual YouTube video about a girl that commits suicide after being bullied.

Dear Reader, please help us contain the spread of this scam on Facebook. Avoid clicking the post if you see it being shared by someone in your network. We also urge you to avoid visiting viralvids(dot)info as this is where the fake Facebook scam pages are hosted.

Jovi Umawing (Thanks, Steven!)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jovi Umawing

Knows a bit about everything and a lot about several somethings. Writes about those somethings, usually in long-form.