14 DAY TRIAL // A video scam is spreading across Facebook, pointing to a bait page for online surveys that integrates advertisements delivered through Google’s ad service.
This could serve as a backup plan, in case the potential victim does not engage in the completion of surveys, in the hope that an ad may be appealing enough for a visitor to click on it.
The initial post uses as bait the promise to take the unsuspecting user to a video claiming to reveal nude photos of actress Jennifer Lawrence, following the recent massive leak of compromising images of various celebrities. This is more evidence that cybercriminals are keeping themselves up-to-date with the latest online events in order to come up with more efficient bait.
After the curious user clicks on the link in the post on the social network, they are taken to a page (imgpaid[.]com) impersonating Facebook. Almost the entire content presented is fake, except for the advertisements.
Crooks set up the trap complete with a message section containing instructions on how to access the video, from alleged users claiming to have already watched it. Even the sidebar with links to different Facebook sections is shown, and in the right hand part, there are statistics displaying the popularity of the content and the number of viewers.
However, even a simple look at the messages reveals the scam because the text has been recycled from a different campaign. Some of the “users” expressing their opinion about the footage purporting to feature a scantily clad Jennifer Lawrence refer to a shark attack.
Further evidence of the deceit is provided by the date-stamp of the input, which is around Christmas time.
Simply paying attention to details should be enough for the average Joe to spot the scam and avoid falling into the trap.
For instance, messages cannot be added, and the links to various parts of Facebook do not work. On the same note, statistics are the same, no matter how many times the page is refreshed. This is because all these “details” are displayed as static images. Only the advertisements change.
Trying to access the video content requires first sharing it with friends on the social network, which is nothing but a way for scammers to ensure that more potential victims are exposed.
If the user makes this mistake, they are then asked to complete online surveys, with the promise that the content would be revealed afterwards.
Surveys and ads are not the only revenue-generating activities for the crooks as in other versions of the same scam users are redirected to a page that asks them to download a fake Flash Player, probably as part of an affiliate marketing scheme.