Facebook WARNING: Avoid the “BBC News – Osama Bin Laden Death Video!” SCAM

POSTED BY Patrick ON May 2, 2011 / 0 COMMENTS

Within hours of the dramatic announcement of the death of Al-Qaeda’s leader, Osama Bin Laden, Facebook scammers had already started spreading this “Comment-Jacking” wall post on the Facebook News Feed fast!

Message reads as follows:

BBC News – Osama Bin Laden Death Video!

“Comment-Jacking” is similar to “Click-Jacking” and basically tricks a user into clicking a link which then posts a link to your friends’ Facebook News Feed, claiming that you had commented on it. When a Facebook User clicks on the link, they are taken to the following fake “CAPTCHA” page:

This fake security page will accept any code entered to verify the “CAPTCHA” whether correct or incorrect! It is only there for the sole purpose of getting a Facebook User to click on the “Submit” button, after which point the “Comment-Jacking” takes place, immediately posting the same link to spam your friends and their network of friends. Meanwhile, the Facebook User is taken to the following Survey Scam page:

The survey scam will attempt to get your personal information which could be used maliciously against you. If you also download any videos, games or other files then your computer could be infected with a virus, trojan or other malware. See the solutions at the end of this article.

***UPDATE:

Also avoid the “Osama Bin Laden killed live on a news broadcast! watch the video” SCAM

There is another variant of the above scam doing the rounds in Facebook with the following message:

Osama Bin Laden killed live on a news broadcast! watch the video

On this occasion, clicking the wall post link above will take you to the following Facebook Page:

Step number 1 requires you to copy and paste some malicious code directly into your browser’s address bar. If you do so, the security controls built into your web browser are by-passed and the code can execute any dangerous command on your computer. In this case, the code infects your machine with a computer virus.