Girl killed herself, after her dad posted this to her wall? No, a new spin on a Facebook scam

NOTE: This article was first posted in September 2010, but continues to receive a high amount of traffic as malicious scammers continue to use the story of a girl killing herself to spread their campaigns across Facebook. The scams use a variety of techniques and variations of the disguises to maximise their chances of tricking people into taking surveys or handing over personal information.

And now back to the original article from September 2010..

For a few days we’ve been monitoring a new spin on a Facebook scam, that claims a girl killed herself on Christmas Eve after her dad posted a message on her wall. Before we’ve documented both the related hoax warnings spread on Facebook, as well as scam pages that popped up trying to trick users into “liking” them, and the truth about the real woman’s death that has been exploited by heartless cybercriminals.

The latest scam is spreading virally, tricking users into liking pages which claim to offer you access to the “horrific wall post” that allegedly made a girl kill herself on Christmas Eve…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, or drop him an email.