A new scam message is reportedly been spreading on Facebook, where users are enticed to click on a link which promises to show them a video of a snake eating a man. Although the message has been flagged as a scam, many users on Facebook are still clicking on the scam link, which then automatically “likes” and “shares” it on their Facebook Timeline.
The scam message is spreading with the following title and message –
Message: CAUGHT ON TAPE- A Giant Snake Swallows Up A Zookeeper in Front of Hundreds of People!
Clicking the message link will take the user to a page that is designed to look very similar to a Facebook Page. The page contains a fake YouTube video player, and clicking on the “play” button, your Facebook account will be like-jacked.
Likejacking is a malicious technique of tricking users of a website into posting a Facebook status update for a site they did not intentionally mean to “like”.
Once the message has been posted on your Facebook Timeline, you will be redirected to another page where you will be presented with a set of online surveys. The scammer indicates that after you have completed the surveys, you can watch the video. However, there is no such video shown.
It is recommended that you DO NOT click on such links or scam messages on Facebook. If you come across this scam message, please delete/remove the scam from your Facebook news feed immediately. Alternately, you can report the scam to Facebook Security.
Also, as a precautionary measure, always check which applications you use and remove unwanted or suspicious ones. If you aren’t sure how to do it, you can always check our guide on removing apps from Facebook. In addition to that, don’t forget to check out our article about Avoiding Facebook Lifejacking and Clickjacking scams.
With over 800 million users on Facebook, the social networking giant has always been the main target for spreading scams. It is quite difficult to identify scams on Facebook. Here is a post on How to Identify and Avoid Facebook Scams. Bookmark PCwin Zone Facebook Scams or Subscribe to Scam Alert Feed. We always keep you updated with the latest scams spreading on Facebook.