14 DAY TRIAL // As it happens with all major events that capture the attention of the world, the accident at Alton Towers park in the UK last week piqued the interest of cybercriminals, who now use it as a lure in a scam on Facebook.
On Tuesday, the Alton Towers roller coaster, going at 20mph (32km/h) collided with a stationary test car. The crash resulted in four people suffering serious leg injuries and a total of 16 being stranded for more than four hours.
Any major event is a scam opportunity
Scammers obviously saw a window of opportunity in this and began spreading messages that promise access to video footage of the accident.
Accessing the provided link takes the potential victim to a fraudulent page impersonating YouTube. To make the scam more credible, the crooks included a teaser image from the accident and several comments designed to offer instructions about what needs to be done to watch the clip.
The scammers are always looking for new victims, so one of the requests is to share the message. However, according to Hoax Slayer, another request is made, to download and install a video player update that would allow viewing the footage.
It appears that the crooks are in on an affiliate marketing operation, which gets them paid for each successful installation of certain software products.
Any scam can lead to a deeper cut
The practice may not seem like anything more than adding a program on the computer, but some of them funnel in third-party code that could expose users to privacy risks and even malware.
Believing that the program can be easily installed is, in plenty of cases, wishful thinking. Most of the times, the removal process is faulty and special software is needed to identify the debris and boot it out of the system.
Any promise of incredible footage on Facebook and other popular social networks should be searched on reputed media channels because there is a good chance of a scam.
The consequences of falling into such a trap can extend to giving sensitive personal information and even financial losses.