14 DAY TRIAL // A rapidly spreading Facebook scam lures users to surveys with claims that an American man must be punished by stoning for doing something to a girl.
The scam's victims are spreading spam messages reading "This American GUY must be Stoned to De@th for doing this to a GIRL: [LINK]"
According to Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, there is even a Christmas-themed variation of the spam which adds "on Christmas Eve" after "GIRL."
The advertised link takes users to pages which display a fake video thumbnail depicting a scantly dressed attractive girl.
Clicking on the image prompts a permissions dialog from a rogue app which wants access to post on people's walls and access their data.
This is the propagation component of the scam and users who fall for the trick will start spamming their friends and family with messages like the ones mentioned above.
And they won't even get to see what the guy allegedly did to the girl, because they will be asked to complete a survey first.
These surveys try to subscribe people to premium rate services and collect their personal information for future marketing purposes. Scammers earn a commission when users complete them.
It seems this is one of several Facebook scams that recycle themes. Back in October, we reportedabout a different campaign which used the exact same message.
This suggests that the lure has registered a high success rate in the past, which determined scammers to use it again.
Cleaning an account affected by the scam involves going to Account > Privacy Settings > Applications and Websites and revoking all permissions granted to the rogue app. Spam messages posted on the wall should also be removed in order to protect others.