Beware “Look what I found” scam links on Facebook Messenger
Facebook users should be aware of messages seemingly sent by friends over Messenger that contain a link attached to the message “Look what I found”.
SCAM
The messages will arrive via Facebook Messenger and may appear to have been sent to you by friends. However these links will direct users to scam websites.
An example of such a link is below.
We’ve previously reports on other scams that work in an identical way only with different messages sent to the victim. For instance other variants of this same scam involved sending messages to victims with messages such as “is it you in this video?”.
These scams work in the same way, only with the message now changed to “Look what I found”. The principle here is the same – to entice the recipient into opening the attached link, which will direct them to a scam.
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But why did my social media contact send the message?
They didn’t. What has happened is the account belonging to your social media contact was compromised, and it was actually scammers that sent the message to you, posing as the contact.
We tested some of these links and were directed to a variety of different websites through a complex redirecting service. Sometimes we landed on websites that tried to lure us into installing malware posing as legitimate software. Other times we landed on survey scams asking us to provide personal information about ourselves. And sometimes we landed on phishing login pages that tried to steal our Facebook login credentials (which would likely result in our own Facebook page posting the same link over Facebook Messenger.)
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As we have stated a number of times before when faced with earlier iterations of this scam – always be cautious of links sent to you through Facebook Messenger, as well as messaging services belonging to other social media websites, as well as email.
Even if these messages appear to have come from friends, there is a good chance that if the links appear suspicious, then your friends probably didn’t send them.
It’s also worth reminding our readers of the importance and effectiveness of tools like two factor authentication which prevent crooks from accessing your account even if you do unwittingly give up your password.
Keep up-to-date with all the latest cybersecurity threats and our tips to stay safe online. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
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