14 DAY TRIAL // Remeber the old “Yahoo Messenger will be shut down” scam that's been successfully doing the rounds for a few years? Such is the case of the schemes that involve Facebook.
If last time users were warned that Facebook was going to charge members, the latest plot claims that “unverified accounts will be terminated,” ESET experts report.
“WARNING: Announcement From FACEBOOK Verification Team. All Profiles Must Be Verified Before 16th June 2012 To Avoid Scams And Scams Under SOPA ACT. The Unverified Accounts Will Be Terminate. Verify Your Accounts By Bellow Steps,” reads the fake notification.
Judging by the date, the scammy app is new. However, just like all those before it, it doesn’t really make any sense.
First of all, the “SOPA ACT” is long gone, being replaced with the new Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA).
Secondly, it’s clear that an official Facebook announcement would never be so poorly written, with all words starting with capital letters.
And now that we’ve established that this notification is clearly a fake, let’s take a look at what the cybercrooks want to achieve by launching this campaign.
ESET Security Researcher Cameron Camp has analyzed the app and reveals that a number of 13 different scripts attempt to execute during the page load. Besides the scripts, there are a lot of advertising sites that also pop up.
The so-called verification buttons lead to a domain that contains even more malicious elements.
While it’s true that most antivirus solutions do a good job at detecting such nasty websites, there’s an even easier way to avoid falling victim to such schemes. Simply refrain from clicking on suspicious links that claim to point to outrageous content or fabulous prizes.