Lady Gaga found dead in hotel room? Beware Facebook clickjacking scam

Has Lady Gaga really been found dead in a hotel room? A scam which has spread rapidly across Facebook would certainly like you to think so.

Heres’s an example of a message that is being seen spreading virally on Facebook, posing as a link to a BBC TV News report.

Lady Gaga found dead in hotel room

BREAKING: Lady Gaga Found Dead in Hotel Room
This is the most awful day in US history

Wow. I mean, yes, it would be tragic if Lady Gaga were to die, but.. seriously.. “the most awful day in US history”?

Anyway, if you are tricked into clicking on the link you are taken ultimately (via a website which sloppily allows an open redirect) to a webpage that pretends to contain a BBC News video report:

Fake BBC website

Watch out, though, if you try to play the video as this is a clickjacking scam which attempts to silently say you “Like” the page when you click with your mouse.

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Users who have installed a browser add-on such a NoScript for Firefox will see a message warning them of the peril of being clickjacked.

Clickjacking intercepted by NoScript

If you’ve been hit by a scam like this, remove the messages and likes from your Facebook page – and warn your friends not to click on the offending links. Clearly there’s much more work which needs to be done by Facebook to prevent these sorts of messages spreading so rapidly.

Update: A very similar scam has spread across Facebook claiming that Lil Wayne, rather than Lady Gaga, has died. Messages in that campaign include:

BBC News: 2 Rappers Died, L1L Wayne Near Death in Car Crash [VIDE0]

and

BREAKING: Lil Wayne Nearly Dies In FATAL Car Crash! [VIDE0]


Graham Cluley is an award-winning keynote speaker who has given presentations around the world about cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. A veteran of the computer security industry since the early 1990s, he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows, makes regular media appearances, and is the co-host of the popular "Smashing Security" podcast. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, or drop him an email.

One comment on “Lady Gaga found dead in hotel room? Beware Facebook clickjacking scam”

  1. Ilham

    You can't "make the general ptpilaouon take responsibility" for anything.Maybe, maybe not; how is that Google's fault or Google's problem, exactly?If people are behaving in the most negligent way, that's entirely their problems, unless it affect other people safety, like when driving.Our crypto-communist western societies have a problem here, me think: we want freedom, we want protection, we want to determine public policy, we want to be treated as kids…

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