14 DAY TRIAL // Security researchers warn of a new Facebook survey scam that lures overly curious users with promises of a shocking video about a guy's harsh revenge against his ex-girlfriend.
The victims of this scam will end up spamming their friends with links called: "WOW, This GUY Went A Little To Far WITH His REVENGE On His EX GIRLFRIEND! (shocking)"
The associated messages read: "Ohhh my God! Thats Harsh Revenge right there ! :O" or "Do you think this guy went a little to far with his revenge? This guy didn't like what his girlfriend did, so he took revenge in his own hands!"
Clicking on the spammed link is obviously not a good idea, as it takes users to a rogue Facebook application page designed to trick them.
There are different types of survey scams on Facebook and this appears to be one of those multi-step ones, where users have to complete different tasks in order to access the alleged content.
Of course, very few of them actually deliver on their promise and when they do, the content betrays expectations and is not shocking at all.
In this case, users are encouraged to Like and Share a rogue page called “g1rlfriendsh0ck," which falsely claims that the intriguing video has been seen by 441,843 users.
"What do you think happens if you’ve Liked and Shared? That’s right, a useless survey trying to get you to sign up for various offers you can probably do without," Christopher Boyd, a researcher at GFI Sunbelt, warns.
"I imagine the owner of said scam (who is hiding behind a Domains By Proxy registration) is making a tidy packet from this one," he adds.
Indeed, scammers earn generous commissions through affiliate marketing schemes for driving traffic to these surveys, that usually try to sign up users to premium rate services.