14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook users are exposed to a new scam these days, which claims to offer them footage of spiders coming out of a man’s leg. The description in the post that is shared by a friend seems to be enough of an incentive to dupe amateurs of weird videos.
Cybercriminals running these campaigns have little imagination or they are too lazy to create the lure themselves and the easiest solution is to either recycle old scams or use real events and spice them up with some incentives.
In this case, however, the crooks decided to draw inspiration from what is actually passed on the Internet as a prank (http://unlooker.com/gross-video-baby-spiders-coming-out-of-this-guys-leg/). Only they upped the ante by adding an image bait to the text and the claim that there is a video to be watched.
There is no footage, but those bent to see it jump through hoops in their futile endeavor, encountering nothing but online surveys to be completed.
Following the link in the post gets the potential victim out of Facebook, to a fake page complete with dummy comments designed to make the user believe that others have already witnessed the horror in the video.
Completing surveys seems to be the main goal of the campaign, according to Hoax-Slayer, and there are plenty of them available. For every survey the cybercriminal earns a commission.
However, a greater risk than this lurks, because some of the surveys ask for personal information that can be used in marketing campaigns, or in fraudulent activities like spam and phishing.
There are plenty of cases where victims have been required the mobile phone number and were automatically subscribed to premium rate services without their consent or knowledge.
Users are advised to put a cork to their curiosity and not to access any links in posts that appear suspicious, even if they come friends.
Also, when accessing content is conditioned by certain actions such as sharing or liking, a scam is most definitely in development.
In case cybercriminals succeeded with the first stage of the trick and the fake post has been disseminated on the social networking website, it is best to delete the posts from the timeline and alert friends of the deceit.
In recent such nefarious efforts, fake McDonald’s gift cards were promoted and even the Robin Williams’ tragedy was taken advantage of, by claiming that the actor recorded a goodbye video message before committing suicide.