14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook scammers are at work again, this time luring users with an alleged video of Casey Anthony confessing to her lawyer that she murdered her daughter.
At the beginning of the month a jury found 25-year-old Casey Anthony non guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter, and aggravated child abuse.
Casey was accused of murdering her two-year-old daughter Caylee Marie Anthony in a highly publicized case that lasted three years.
Media coverage of the case and trial drew very high ratings suggesting that there was a lot of public interest into Casey's Anthony verdict.
Cyber criminals have jumped at the occasion to monetize this interest by launching one of their Facebook survey scams.
The messages spammed from the accounts of users who fell for the scam read: "BREAKING NEWS - Leaked Video of Casey Anthony CONFESSION to Lawyer! Click To See - She can't be re-tried, double jeopordy.. OJ all over again!"
The included link takes users to a YouTube-like page which displays a video thumbnail. A dialog pops-up asking them to confirm that they are older than 13 by pressing on "Jaa."
This is a trick that uses a Facebook dialog in a foreign language in order to hide the actual role of a button. "Jaa" means "share" in Finnish, but is also similar to "ja" which means "yes" in German and informal English.
"The scammers want you to help them spread the link far and wide by getting you to Share it with your Facebook friends and family. Remember - you're being asked to do this before you see any video," says Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.
"If one of your Facebook friends see that you have shared the link via your newsfeed, they might believe that you are endorsing the claim that this is a video of Casey Anthony confessing to her lawyer - and click on it themselves," he warns.
Of course, in the end there's no video and users are asked to fill one of several surveys which earn scammers commission money through affiliate marketing schemes.