By Cesar Ortiz
Just a few hours after the unfortunate death of singer Amy Winehouse, insensitive money driven scammers have began to circulate a malware scam where they claim to have a bad taste video of the singer. We hate to publish the text of the scam, but we have to in order to warn users not to fall into the scam. Reality is reality and there are some bad souls out there in the social media field that mean to do harm specially when tragedy arises.
Just a few hours after the unfortunate death of singer Amy Winehouse, insensitive money driven scammers have began to circulate a malware scam where they claim to have a bad taste video of the singer. We hate to publish the text of the scam, but we have to in order to warn users not to fall into the scam. Reality is reality and there are some bad souls out there in the social media field that mean to do harm specially when tragedy arises.
The scam will show the following window from one of your friends in your Facebook Newsfeed:
A Facebbok real looking window and links with a sepia-green tone picture of what appears to be the late singer. The window shows the following:
“Amy Winehouse is dead!!!
Leaked Video!! Amy Winehouse On Crack hours before death
[Link]
Amy Winehouse getting high on crack just hours before she died
Xx hours ago”
Another scam derivate, with a gross picture will say:
“Video leaked of amy winehouse's death!!! Warning: Graphical Content.
[LINK]
Amy Winehouse OVERDOSE VIDEO LEAKED! - RIP AMY”
[LINK]
Amy Winehouse OVERDOSE VIDEO LEAKED! - RIP AMY”
When unsuspecting users click on the “Share”, “Comment” or “Like” link, the malware will immediately send the same "Leaked Video" message received by the user to all his or her friends, therefore propagating the scam. The next step in the scam is another window that asks users to complete a survey before they see the “video”. When users complete the survey they are sent to a fake none descript page that shows nothing, of course. This is where the scammer gets the money. Unscrupulous or unsuspecting merchants will pay scammers per completed survey. The survey is one route the scammer will take. Other options are more dangerous and will change fast, like signing for expensive alerts plans, Two dollars per minute charge calls, cellular scams and outright fraud.
To clean this mess, victims should do the following:
- Go to your Facebook page and select your “Newsfeed” and delete the related post by clicking the blue “X Remove Post” button to the right of the Amy Winehouse Leaked Video entry. The button will show when the mouse cursor is moved around the top right margin of the post.
-Notify your friends to follow the same steps.
I urge users to please report this ugly scam directly to Facebook:
(2) Click on the "Messages" link in the left navigation pane.
(3) Click on the message that you want to report as spam.
(4) Click on the "Actions" drop-down box. Choose "Report as Spam" from the list of options.
(5) Click the "Report as Spam" button to confirm.
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