This article has been updated on 14th June 2012.
Hey everyone. How are you doing? Long time since my last post eh! Today was a busy day and I didn't get chance to check mails, facebook and twitter and stuff the whole day. At night when I opened facebook, to my surprise, I received a message (because usually nobody messages me!). This message was from one of my friends and it was titled - "this is sick". To my curiosity, I opened the message to read and thought it was the authentic message from him, but it wasn't. It was one of many facebook spam/malware/scam messages roaming around facebook since long.
When I opened the message, it had a link titled - "98 Percent Of People Cant Watch This Video For More Than 15 Seconds". I thought "wow. 98 percent people ha?" Then I thought I have seen so many sick videos, so bad that barely anyone could watch. So this was like a challenge for me! I can't see the video, even for 15 minutes huh? I thought I'm not going to see the video and waste my time but on a second thought I decided to give it a try.
Update : The click jacking scam is on rise again. Many Facebook users are receiving different messages from their friends they never send. These new scam messages are titled ad below :
* [VIDEO] Snake Eats MAN! CAUGHT ON TAPE- A Giant Snake Swallows Up A Zookeeper in Front of Hundreds of People!
* You'll Never BELIEVE This Video
* Man in wheelchair fall down elevator shaft "[SHOCKING VIDEO]"
What was the video all about? Was it really unwatchable? Or I watched it till the end? Nope, because it is not an actual video at all. It is a kind of spam that spreads through facebook. On opening the link on the message, it takes you to a facebook page telling you to enter "yuk!" as comment. But wait. It is not actually a facebook page. it is facebook lookalike page. When you visit the page, it looks almost the authentic facebook page, but if you look into the address bar, you come to know it actually is not. Underneath the "Share" button on the page, there is another spam website. Clicking on the share button takes you to that site and victimize you.
So what exactly this thing is all about?
Well, this is one kind of spam. It is also called "click jacking". There are many jobless people all around the world who have enough time to create this kind of shit and make people fool. They have lots of time to spend and what they do is to waste yours. These guys don't spend much money on this kind if shit. They buy the cheapest domains available like - .info, .biz, .tk, .cc etc. Their purpose of doing this may vary. For example some scams are just to spread spam wall to wall. Some scams are used to drop a malware on user's computer. Some scams are created to generate traffic to affiliated websites etc. Some scams are run to fool people into something attractive like "Free iPhone" etc where they ask you to fill up a "simple" survey.
Some months ago, I wrote similar article, which described another kind of facebook spam which used to spread wall to wall. One thing you should note that the spammers usually use multiple domains, so anyone who receives such message may receive different link.
What should I do when I receive this kind of scam message?
Whenever you receive this kind of spam/scam message, first delete the message. DO NOT click on the link in the message. If you mistakenly clicked the link, and it opened the page, do not click the "Share" or "Like" button otherwise you will end up spamming all your friends with the same message you received. Aware all your friends about this message and tell them not to open it and delete it right away. For further help visit this facebook help page
My friends are receiving this kind of scam messages from my account. What shall I do?
First thing you should do is to delete the message from your message box and anywhere else you find it. Log out from facebook and other websites you might be logged in. Clear all cookies, cache and other temp files using some cleaning applications like CCleaner. Its free. After cleaning everything, reboot your computer and change you facebook password. You should also tell your friends that any similar message they received from you is a scam message and they should delete it. For further help, you can visit facebook help page here.
Don't fall into this kind of scams and whenever you receive such links through messages, or any other way, don't go crazy and open the link and do as they tell you to do. Share this article and aware your friends about it. Be smart, be safe okay?
This article has been updated on 14th June 2012.
