Seems like hackers are it again, fooling those apparently smart geeks out at Facebook. This new scam feeds on the average users’ hunger for gossip when they are lured into clicking links for watching scandalous videos.
The video scam broke out on Tuesday and has been circulating ever since. It lures users into clicking on it by offering to show a video of the Dominique Strauss-Kahn (disgraced former International Monetary Fund Managing Director) scandal. When the hackers realised this was not working as good as they wanted it to, they switched to showing a link of a raunchy video of Rihanna and Hayden Panettiere.
Once you click on the link, the scam works differently depending on the system you are using. On Windows, victims are told that in order to view the video they should download and install the latest version of Adobe Flash Player, but end up installing a malware antivirus program on their computer. For Mac users, the scam shows a pop up window asking if they would like to fix or ignore some security issues. Once the unsuspecting user clicks on “fix” the fake software is installed right away.
If you think it is over, now comes the worst part. The software will now show warning messages and open a porn site every five minutes. Now, an average person wouldn’t want that would they? So, the only way to get rid of this is by paying a $60-$80 (approx Rs 2700-Rs3600) which will stop the software from functioning.
If you choose to save the money and don’t pay, the porn sites will continue to appear on your computer every five minutes and the links to the original scam videos will be posted on your Facebook wall to lure your friends.
Facebook has been unable to stop the spread of the malware, so it is our duty to let all our readers know that they should be cautious and like always do not click on unknown links. These hackers seem to be using some newer techniques which make its detection by Facebook’s system tough. A Facebook spokesperson on Wednesday had no answer as to why the scam was spreading like wild fire, but did say that the company was “in the process of investigating, blocking the links, and remediating any affected users.”