Facebook users should be aware of rogue Facebook applications that uses the popular celebrity death hoaxes as bait.
Celebrity death hoaxes have been incredibly popular during the course of 2012 with dozens of celebrities having stories of their “deaths” circulated virally across social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. It seems many Internet users are easily tricked into acting hastily online in order to see if a celebrity has died.
In most cases these hoaxes were just pranks that led to fake websites that reported on the fake death story – annoying but essentially harmless to the user. However more serious scams using the lure of fake celebdom death rumours are beginning to increase in popularity, in particular scams that trick users into installing rogue Facebook applications and scams that bait users into completing surveys which harvest their personal information. Often both at the same time.
As is typical with rogue Facebook applications, after a user is lured into installing them, they go straight to posting spammy messages from the users Facebook account in a bid to try and fool the users Facebook friends into the same ruse. Several of these scams seem to be using WWE wrestlers as bait, but it is likely that many celebrities will eventually be targeted.
And in some cases these applications are forwarding Facebook users to sites that assert that in order to continue the user must first complete a survey.
So in effect what happens is a user spams all of their friends and then gives all their personal information away to survey companies and in return receives nothing at all. Not really time well spent.
And be aware that these scams are perfectly capable of trying to trick users into downloading malware onto their computers as well.
The advice regarding celebrity rumour is – as always – always verify stories (such as death rumours) with verifiable online news agencies such as the BBC, CNN and MSNBC. Never click on links on social networking sites, never install Facebook apps and never install software onto your computer to get a hold of the latest news.
If you have installed a Facebook application onto your computer you need to get rid of it and remove any posts it may have made. You can check out our guide on how to remove spammy Facebook apps.
If you think you may have been tricked into downloading harmful files onto your computer then you need to run up-to-date, reliable antivirus software straight away.
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