Warning: Whitney Houston autopsy video links on Facebook aren’t what they seem

Graham Cluley
Graham Cluley
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@gcluley

Whitney HoustonThe death of pop superstar Whitney Houston made headlines around the world this weekend, and it didn’t take long for fraudsters and cybercriminals to cash in on the singer’s death.

For instance, messages have been seen shared on Facebook claiming to link to a video of Whitney Houston’s autopsy.

According to the messages, the video of Whitney Houston’s autopsy “reveals a shocking secret that explains her death”.

Here’s what a typical message looks like:

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 - Whitney Houstons autopsy reveals a shocking secret that explains her death

- Whitney Houstons autopsy reveals a shocking secret that explains her death.
[LINK]

Breaking News: Coroners autopsy reports reveals a dark past and secret life which tragically led to Whitney Houstons death.

Clicking on the link will take your browser which appears to show a YouTube video embedded on what looks like a Facebook webpage. However, a message on the page says that the video cannot be played as your version of Adobe Flash needs to be updated.

Whitney Houston video Flash download prompt

Of course, you should only ever download an update for your installation of Flash from the *real* Adobe website, so my recommendation is to be very wary about downloading any software that this bogus webpage might serve up to you, or any scam survey pages that it might direct you towards.

If you use Facebook and want to get an early warning about the latest attacks, you should join the Sophos Facebook page where we have a thriving community of over 160,000 people.


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.

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