Facebook scam claims Lady Gaga is dead

Ray Tamarra / Getty Images

By Rosa Golijan

Another day, another Facebook scam. The latest one? A series of messages which attempt to trick you into clicking links leading to a fake news report and a rather ridiculous security threat.

Sophos reports that many Facebook users have been seeing messages announcing that music sensation Lady Gaga has been found dead in a hotel room. The message includes a link which appears to lead to a news report, but in reality it just lures users into a clickjacking scam:

If you are tricked into clicking on the link you are taken ultimately (via a website which sloppily allows an open redirect) to a webpage that pretends to contain a BBC News video report.

Watch out, though, if you try to play the video as this is a clickjacking scam which attempts to silently say you "Like" the page when you click with your mouse.

Oh, but that's not so bad ? you're just being fooled into "liking" a page and no real harm is being done, right? Well, not entirely. As soon as you "like" something on Facebook, the link is shared with your friends. They in turn may follow it?? just as you did?? and then continue spreading this ridiculousness.

And what's worse: Similar scams may have far more malicious intentions.

So what can you do to protect yourself? Think twice before clicking a link you discover in your News Feed ??is the friend who shared it really the type who would "like" a thing like that??? and keep an eye out for peculiar pop-ups.

And if you get suckered into a scam like this despite being careful? It's ok, it happens to the best of us. But there are a few things you should do:

• Check the security settings on your Facebook account. Did you really authorize all the apps and websites which are interacting with your Facebook account? No? Take access away from the ones which look unfamiliar.
• Look at your News Feed. Are there things or links which you don't recall liking listed? Are there posts and status updates which you didn't write? Get rid of them before your friends see them and get scammed, too.

Related stories:

Rosa Golijan writes about tech here and there. She's obsessed with?Twitter?and loves to be liked on?Facebook.?Oh, and she can be found on?Google+, too.

Source: http://digitallife.today.com/_news/2011/08/05/7265249-facebook-scam-claims-lady-gaga-is-dead

mortal kombat legacy live cricket scores live cricket scores card games gaa gaa entourage