Did Michael Jackson fake his death? Rogue Facebook app uses ghoulish lure

Graham cluley
Graham Cluley
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Michael Jackson may have died on June 25, 2009, but conspiracy theories about his death continue to thrive.

Perhaps one of the craziest theories is that the so-called Prince of Pop didn’t die at all, but instead faked his own death. It’s hard to imagine that anyone seriously believes this, but this is precisely the kind of thing that makes the internet go around – and so it’s not surprising that some ghoulish hackers might try and take advantage.

Here’s a message I found on Facebook:

Did Michael Jackson fake his death? Look at this video!

Clicking on the link takes you to an image of Michael Jackson wearing his trademark costume and bejewelled glove.

The page asks you to click on his image, which takes you to a third-party Facebook application.

At this point alarm bells should always be ringing. Why would you need to install an application to view the video? Why doesn’t the link point directly to a video hosted on Facebook or to a…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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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, Bluesky, or drop him an email.

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