A familiar method of spreading malware has resurfaced in Singapore — the one that has your friend’s hacked Facebook account sending you a message out of the blue to ask if a linked video is yours.
Don’t click on that link.
The Facebook Messenger hoax has been spreading around for years, really, but in recent days, local users have reported a resurgence in the ruse. Typically, the messages will involve the recipient’s name, accompanying text about some video, a “shocked” emoji and the virus-ridden link.
How it works is that the link will take you to a fake website designed to look like a Facebook login page, which will require you to key in your email address and password to watch the video. With that information, scammers will hijack your Facebook account and use it to send the same scam message to those on your friends list.
Alternatively, that link will take you to a malicious website that can trick you into downloading and installing malware on your computer.
So if you’ve been receiving complaints from your network about your Facebook account sending out these virus-ridden messages, your account might be compromised. Soz.
Said malware could use tracking cookies to monitor the compromised victim’s online activity and force ads on the screen — even engineer the victim to click on links. The ads help make money for the scammers.
So once again, don’t click on any suspiciously worded messages and strange URL links. It’ll help if you enable two-factor authentication for your Facebook account as well.
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