This is how scam on Facebook works

As of May 2012, the World’s largest social network Facebook can boast more than 842 million users – an impressive number considering there are 7 billion people on the planet. The more people connected on a centralized platform, the more interesting it becomes for Internet criminals, to everyone's dismay!

Every year, there is more news about fraud attempts, identity theft, and hacker attacks on Facebook. It is no wonder, as these actions occur in real-time, and exciting news are spread at the speed of light thanks to activities in this network. Most attacks are based on scam, i.e. fraud that no anti-virus or anti-malware software is able to protect you from, as it is not always malicious software that is used. The authors rather rely on their victims' naivety or greed. This is reason enough for us to explain the general proceedings, so you can avoid scam more efficiently and use Facebook in a more secure manner in the future.

This is how the fraudsters proceed

The criminals' goal is to arouse as many people's interest as possible to have as many potential victims as possible. This is mostly based on spectacular news. It is often a world-famous person; for example, they used Whitney Houston's or Steve Jobs's death for their financial goals. In both cases, there was apparently red hot news about one of the celebrities, such as a video showing the diva shortly before her tragic death. But also less spectacular news are used to raise your interest.

Once the fraudster has managed to raise tthe victim's interest, he is already halfway there. It is traditionally about clicking on an external link or liking a Facebook app that will take you to the spectacular content. One can very clearly see what this fraud is about of course, this piece of news is just fake. It is a psychological trick, as when faced with sensational news, we tend to ignore the voice of reason and act just like the scammers want us to.

The fraudster now has several options. Sometimes links to YouTube videos or websites are created in order to increase the number of clicks. Other common ways are forcing you to take surveys, which the fraudster gets money for, or phishing attempts and spreading malware. As this is a considerable risk to your private data and your wallet, you should be careful and not fall for the scammers' methods.

Facebook Scam in real life

Enough on the theory, let us have a look at real scam campaigns.

Example 1: Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse was found dead in her apartment in July 2011. Thanks to active public interest, the first scam attempts did not take long to appear. The most successful one promised a shocking video showing the deceased singer shortly before her death.

There was of course no such video. In reality, you were directed to the following page:

You were then asked to first spread the link in order to reach as many Facebook users as possible. Not only that, but there was also a survey to take in order to win an iPad 2. That is when the victim started wondering why nothing else happened and saw merely a trivial video or none at all. The hacker achieved what he was out for: The alluring message has been spread, and he had earned money with the survey taken.

Example 2: Steve Jobs

The Apple founder's death was also abused by online fraudsters. Within no time several Facebook pages were created, partially supposedly by Apple, partially simply by "a company". The content, however, was always the same:

A considerable amount of iPads was to be raffled off in memory of the recently deceased. This amount varied between 50 and 500 pieces. The scammers' intentions were different as well; apart from asking the victims to take surveys, some versions redirected them the victims to online casino websites. This example clearly shows how many people fell for such tricks and spread the message.

Example 3: Fake apps

The authors of fake apps followed a slightly different path from the aforementioned ones.

This is an application that pretends to show how many people visit your profile. The message is traditionally spread over your friends' walls.

Once your interest has been aroused, the application requests permission to acces all your Facebook data and functions. This ensures the fake app spreading further. The collected data can be used to send spam or is sold off to commercial mail senders.

The aforementioned surveys are used as well – an easy way of earning for the scammer. Such scam apps are of course deleted by Facebook as soon as they find out about them. The authors, however, never stop, though, creating new applications with alternating names.

Example 4: Fake friend requests

The aforementioned fraud attempts relied on Facebook as a means of communication. The fraudsters also send fake e-mails supposedly sent by Facebook such as the following friend request.

The link will not take you to Facebook, but to a fake copy of the site. This site pretends you need to update Macromedia Flash.

Clicking on the link and launching updateflash.exe is fatal: It is the well-known trojan called Zeus or Zbot. As if this were not enough already, there is an exploit kit on the website if the victim does not launch the fake update.

This will put your personal data and the security of your PC at high rish!

Please feel free to watch the short Video "The Internet is a Dangerous Place!", too
HERE in a NEW WINDOW / TAB!

How to protect yourself

All scam attempts would have no success if the recipients did not fall for the alluring message. Please keep the following points in mind:

• Be skeptical!
  Exciting news is not only spread over Facebook, but also over regular websites as well as radio and TV stations. If there is no news about this topic, it is very likely to be scam. Question raffles – why would anyone give away iPads in honor of Steve Jobs, and what's more, why would they do so on Facebook?
  Hint: Google corresponding keywords such as "Amy Winehouse Video". This will often give you hints about fraud attempts.
• Be vigilant on who sends you mails and how they address you.
  When receiving friend requests or other e-mails, please check the language. If you are using Facebook in English, Facebook sends you messages in English. Plus, you will be addressed with the name you are registered with.
• Check links!
  Do links contained really take you to the original company website? You can see where the link takes to by hovering over the link with the cursor. If the URL looks cryptic: Hands off!
• Do not trust your Facebook friends blindly!
  Spreading of scam is usually based on pyramid schemes. Break the chain by not buying into messages and status messages of your Facebook friends.
• Use anti-virus software with real-time protection!
  Even if you have fallen for a scam attempt, it does not necessarily mean your PC has been infected with malicious software. Emsisoft Anti-Malware, for instance, offers triple protection by blocking malware through its powerful dual-engine scanner or behavior analysis before it is launched. In addition, surf protection warns you about many phishing websites when trying to access them.

Try "Emsisoft Internet Security" Free NOW and find out how to obtain Your licence for Free!

Have a nice (malware-free) day!