14 DAY TRIAL // Teen pop star Justin Bieber is the target of Facebook scammers who, in order to attract people's interest and direct them to surveys, claim that he hit a girl for no reason.
Users who fall for this trick will unknowingly post spam messages on their walls, that read: "OH MY GOD!...Justin BIEBER Hits Girl For NO Reason! OMG! This Is So Badd! >>> [link] <<<"
The link directs overly curious people to a page displaying the picture of a girl with the Fox News Channel logo on it, which further claims that the "Poor Girl Committed Suicide Because Of This!"
There's also a big button called Click Here on top of the image, which if clicked, prompts a permissions request from a rogue Facebook application.
Among other things, it asks for access to the user's account basic information and permission to post on their walls. Agreeing will result in the victim unknowingly sending spam to their friends and family.
This particular scam is interesting because it uses multiple lures in addition to the Bieber-themed one. Others are: "This Girl Committed Suicide Because of Dad's Comment" or "OMG This Made Me Feel So Sorry!"
People who misguidedly give the rogue application access to their profiles will not get to see Justin Bieber hitting a girl. Instead, they will be asked to take one of several surveys, that try to sign them up for premium rate services.
"If you've been hit by a scam like this, remove references to it from your newsfeed, revoke the right of rogue applications to access your profile via Account/ Privacy Settings/ Applications and Websites, and edit your profile to remove any unauthorised pages from your 'Likes and interests'," advises Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos.
This is not the first time when Justin Bieber is targeted by Facebook scammers. Back in August, we reported about three separate scams that used his name as lure.