Facebook video scam: 15 seconds? Don’t watch it at all
One of my Facebook friends drew my attention today to a fast-spreading link. I'm pleased to say that he knew better than to look at it, but I figured it was worth seeing what it was all about. The link comes with this message, according to Facecrooks.com (a good place to check for stuff like this):
98 Percent Of People Cant Watch This Video For More Than 15 Seconds
CLICK LINK TO WATCH VIDEO & SEE HOW LONG YOU CAN LAST!!
Needless to say, clicking the link is not a good idea. It's a survey scam: if you do follow the link, it takes you to a fake Facebook page that looks as if it contains a video, but if you click the "play" button, it loads a "Share" box so that you can irritate all your friends by spamming them with the same message, and then the survey scam. In case you haven't met these before - I know, not very likely if you have a Facebook account – it's not there for your benefit: the scammers get paid commission for your clicks, and there is no video to "reward" you. Well, I suppose it is unwatchable, but not for its gross content…
Now I'm going to return to my Sunday evening relaxation and try not to think about why anyone would want to watch a video like this. (Evidently, promises of gross content are good social engineering: this one is spreading far and wide.)
David Harley CITP FBCS CISSP
ESET Senior Research Fellow
9 Responses to “Facebook video scam: 15 seconds? Don’t watch it at all”
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November 13th, 2011 at 11:58 am
This is really old spam method on facebook
November 13th, 2011 at 12:02 pm
Of course it’s an old spam/scam. But it’s still working. Otherwise I wouldn’t have wasted part of my Sunday evening on it.
November 13th, 2011 at 12:09 pm
Yes of course it was not meaned like a joke on you or on your work (I mean that emoticon). It was only my addition and of course that you are right … it is still working and that is the worst thing at all I think (sorry for my English but I am from Slovakia)
November 13th, 2011 at 12:41 pm
No worries. It seems a pity that there aren’t enough of us to track these things more closely, but you can’t cover everything.
November 13th, 2011 at 5:04 pm
well since i don;t mess with face book much it's nice to know abot things like that. thatnks david for the info.
November 13th, 2011 at 10:33 pm
THanks for the information, I fell victim of similar scam on facebook… and i have even shared the link we a lot of friendz…
November 16th, 2011 at 8:27 am
Now there is even porn on acebook news feeds. These "scams" are getting a little out of hand.
November 17th, 2011 at 3:38 pm
I got the same spam in my Facebook message box, sent by a friend. I don't quite understand the fascination with fowarding stuff via email and now facebook. "Copy and paste this to your feed and share it with all your friends". 99% of time this stuff is some kind of scam only benefiting the person who started it.
December 20th, 2011 at 3:56 am
if you happened to click this link, is there anyway u can get urself out of this spam