[Update: For more articles about Facebook security click here. To help you protect yourself on Facebook and Twitter, ESET provides a free social media scanner.]

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