14 DAY TRIAL // Security researchers warn that a new Facebook scam is using the “girl killed herself” lure to trick users into completing deceptive surveys and giving spam applications access to their profiles.
The spam message sent from the accounts of people who already fell victim to the scam, reads: “Cant believe this young girl took her life because of what her dad did to her profile :( http://apps.facebook.com/[censored]”
Different variants of this lure have been used in scams in the past, suggesting that they are successful in attracting users.
Some of the previous ones we’ve seen read: “OMG This Girl Killed Herself After Her DAD Posted THIS Status Update on Her Wall Visit”, “Poor Girl Committed Suicide Because Of This!" or “Girl killed herself, after her dad posted This to her Wall."
The protagonists in other, more different, versions of the alleged tragic story were a girl and her boyfriend or a wife and her husband.
The spammed URL takes users to a rogue Facebook app, which asks them for extensive access to their accounts, including the permission to post on their walls.
Accpting this is obviously not a good idea, as this application is the scam’s propagation mechanism and will immediately start sending spam from the user’s account.
Users who misguidedly agree to this won’t get to see any intriguing picture or video. They will instead be prompted to take surveys that earn the scammers money.
“Although this is just a tired scam by somebody hoping that you'll do business with an auto insurance site and they'll get some commission as an affiliate, the same mechanism is available for much worse -- posts containing links to sites that download some serious malcode to name one,” notes Tom Kelchner, security researcher at GFI Software (formerly Sunbelt).
If you've fallen victim to one of these scams, go to “Account > Privacy Settings > Applications and Websites” and remove unkown applications listed there. Also clean your wall of any spam messages posted without your knowledge.