As distasteful as it is to imagine, there will be a number of scams that will be occurring during the upcoming days and weeks related to the shootings at the theater in Aurora, Colorado where the opening night of the new Batman movie was being screened.  These scams follow a pattern of scammers taking advantage of the public curiosity and obsession whenever a major event happens, such as the killing of Osama bin Laden or the Japanese Tsunami.  One of the most common forms that these scams will take will be emails or messages on your Facebook page with links to “exclusive” video footage of some intriguing aspect of the event.  Often the link sent to you on your Facebook page will be from a “friend” although it will, most likely not be from a real friend, but from a friend whose Facebook page has been hacked into and taken over so that you trust the message when you receive it.  As I always say, trust me, you can’t trust anyone and you can trust me on that.  If you click on these links, they will download keystroke logging malware that will steal all of your personal information from your computer and make you a victim of identity theft.

TIPS

Never click on links that you get from friends on Facebook or emails until you have confirmed that they have actually sent you the link and even then you probably are better off considering whether the link that they are sending came from a reliable source or are they unwittingly passing on malware.  Get your videos and other information only from sources that you know are legitimate and keep your computer security software up to date.