Shocking video scams spread on Facebook

Several new Facebook scams are making the rounds today, and although they follow the same pattern as many of the recent scams we’ve seen, some users are still falling for them.

The scams work as follows: first, you’ll see an interesting link in other users’ status updates, but when you follow the link, you’ll be asked to fill up a number of surveys which are nothing more than ploys to extract your personal data.

Today, we’ve seen two very similar scams, both promising a “shocking video” to unsuspecting users. One message that appears in status updates reads “I am shocked!!! I’m NEVER texting AGAIN since I found this out. Video here: http://bit.ly/c4SDyh – Worldwide scandal!”

If you click on the link in the message, it’ll lead you to a rogue Facebook application, which will ask you to fill in a couple of surveys before you can actually see the promised content.

Another message promises a shocking video of a teacher that nearly killed a boy; clicking on the link in the status update will, once again, only force you to jump through hoops and hand over your personal data in the process. Graham Cluley from Sophos does a great job explaining the attack in the video below.