I wrote about today’s Scam of the day previously but am repeating it again because I have both heard from a number of Scamicide readers who have recently been targeted by this scam as well as being the target of this scam myself.  The scam starts when you receive a message on Facebook Messenger that looks like this:

(image: Sophos)

The message will have a link and what appears to be a video, which many people would be tempted to click on out of a concern that the video may be significant, however, when you click on the link, you are taken to a phony Facebook login page.  If you fall for the scam and type in your username and password, you will have turned over control of your Facebook account to a criminal.  When a criminal gains access to your Facebook account, it enables him or her to be able to send out a wide variety of malware infected posts and messages that will appear to come from you and therefore be more likely to lure your unsuspecting friends into clicking on the links in the posts and messages thereby downloading a wide variety of dangerous malware such as ransomware or keystroke logging malware that can lead to identity theft.

TIPS

Remember my motto, “trust me, you can’t trust anyone.”  Whenever you get a Facebook message, email, or text message you can never be sure who is really contacting you.  The “friend” you think is communicating with you may well be a criminal who has managed to hack your friend’s Facebook account, email account or phone and use these accounts to send out phishing messages that lure you into clicking on infected links.  Never click on a link unless you have absolutely confirmed that it is legitimate.

In the case of this particular Facebook Messenger scam, instead of clicking on the link or providing your user name and password, you should contact your real friend to determine if they sent the message to you.  Additionally, it is always a good idea to use dual factor authentication whenever possible so that if somehow you are tricked into providing your user name and password, the criminal still wouldn’t be able to gain access to your account.   Here is a link to information about setting up dual factor authentication on your Facebook account. https://www.facebook.com/help/148233965247823

If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is sign up for free using this link. https://scamicide.com/scam-of-the-day/