The latest gruesome scam to spread rapidly across Facebook has managed to dupe thousands of people, and put them at risk of having their computers infected by malware, by pretending to be a video of a woman being killed for cheating on her husband.
In a nutshell, if you see a message like the following being shared by your friends DO NOT click on it.
[Sad Video] Girl killed by husband just because she kissed another men
Click to watch the video.
The scam, which is being shared between Facebook users, shows what appears to be a video thumbnail of a young woman, on her knees with her arms tied behind her back, with a sword held against her neck as though she is about to be executed.
As you can see, I didn’t make a typo in the headline of this article. The scam does show a poor grasp of grammar. Clearly the scammers meant “another man” or “other men” when they crafted their clickbait.
If you do make the mistake of clicking on the video (although you should ask yourself why you would ever be interested in watching a video of a woman apparently being killed in cold blood), you will be taken to a third-party website which is trying very hard to convince you is part of Facebook.
As the webpage appears, a bloodcurdling woman’s scream will be heard through your speaker (it will continue to sound at irregular intervals for as long as you keep the page open).
The webpage contains comments (almost certainly bogus) from other Facebook users, about how shocking the video is – all in an attempt to trick new visitors to click further.
But if you do click on to watch the video, you are told that you must share the link with your Facebook friends first.
You should, of course, ask yourself – why would it *ever* be a requirement to share a link to a video before you are allowed to watch it for yourself? It just doesn’t make sense.
However, as Bitdefender’s Hot For Security blog explains, the scam is designed to trick unsuspecting Facebook users into downloading dodgy plugins containing adware or malware.
This scam has been spreading on Facebook for at least two days, and appears to have outwitted thousands of users. It’s a crying shame that the social network’s security team hasn’t been more effective at stamping it out.
If you are on Facebook, and want to be kept updated with news about security and privacy risks, and tips on how to protect yourself online, join the Graham Cluley Security News Facebook page.
