After the tragic bombing and shootings in Norway on Friday, it’s unthinkable that scammers would take advantage of such a terrible situation. But that’s precisely what’s happening on Facebook, where a bogus post claims to link you to a video from an Oslo security camera showing the detonation of a car bomb near a Norwegian government building in which at least 10 people were killed.
In actual fact there has been no proof of the existence of such a video thus far. If you see the following message on Facebook (pictured below): “[Video] OSLO Security Camera Captures Blast!”, do not click on it, delete it from your Facebook feed, and report it to Facebook security.
According to Help Net Security, the scam is infecting one user per second:
Security firm Sophos states that clicking on the link redirects victims off-site to a fake video player that mimics Facebook. After being asked to take a survey, they are presented with an IQ test. After that, they’re asked to enter a mobile phone number that will charge the victim $2 per trivia question, four times per week.
Facebook scams seem to be proliferating these days, preying on the curiosity or desires of unsuspecting victims. For instance, there are Facebook Giveaway scams promising users free merchandise for joining a page, a virulent scheme that lured users into clicking a link that spammed all their Facebook friends.
Patrik Runald, senior manager of security research at Websense told Help Net Security, “Criminals know how to take advantage of disasters and the hottest news items to get people to click on infected links. Tragedy is just one type of news that the bad guys use to exploit, compromise and infect your computer. Videos are an especially popular lure; we saw the same thing when Osama bin Laden died and when Casey Anthony was acquitted.”
Other popular lures involve non-existent but widely desired Facebook features such as a Facebook “dislike button” scam, fake invites to Google+ and fake invitations to Google Music.
On the bright side, although scams seem to be gaining popularity, spam has decreased 82.22% over the past year.
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