Lure uses image from National Geographic to seem more believable

Aug 29, 2014 16:15 GMT  ·  By

In another attempt to deceive Facebook users, crooks started to circulate a fake post about a new snake attack, using an image with National Geographic’s logo to make the scam believable.

The message most likely comes from a Facebook friend, who has already fallen for the trick. After clicking the bait, the potential victim is taken to a location (crazyfun[.]pw/snake/) that impersonates a Facebook page.

Nothing in this location is real, despite the crooks spending time to add baiting messages as well as an ad space, to deceive users into believing they are still on Facebook grounds.

To simulate the comments and ads, they used images, and the only URL that can be accessed is available in the video thumb area.

Following the classic method, the potential victim has to share or like the post before getting to watch the snake attack footage from National Geographic. This is how the scam is propagated on the social network, reaching more potential victims.

To eliminate suspicions, the comments image used by the crooks claims that the video was shared more than 15,000 times and received 6,089 likes. Moreover, the fake messages let the user know that others have already viewed the footage.

If the user complies, they then have to complete some online surveys to see the video. By doing this, cybercriminals’ pockets get filled as they are paid for each and every study they complete.

The domain hosting the fake page seems to be used specifically for this sort of campaigns because it stores multiple scam pages.

In the index of the website, there are several locations, all created for storing online bait. Some do not work, while others indicate campaigns that are to be deployed or have already been run.

In one of them, the crooks use the image of a young girl to deliver the fake news of a roller coaster accident in Sydney, Australia; the same image is used for other tricks.

The malicious link in this case leads to a Facebook app claiming to reveal the followers on the social network.

Another scam is titled “Ice Bucket Challenge Fail Compilation” and the image depicts a shark circling a man in an underwater cage.

Researchers have already warned about a possible flurry of “Ice Bucket Challenge” tricks hitting social networks in the near future.

Also, if news of an alligator eating a little boy has been encountered, it is also a ploy that leads to a potentially malicious online location.