Crooks' creativity jar has run dry, scam theme recycled

Nov 6, 2014 17:19 GMT  ·  By

A message announcing that singer Miley Cyrus was found dead some 48 minutes ago has been spotted circulating on Facebook; the video thumb image makes one believe that drug overdose was the cause of the alleged death.

This scam, with very few modifications, has been run several times this year on the social networking website, but it seems that either cybercriminals have run out of creative means to lure potential victims or they think that, with over 1.3 billion monthly users, there are plenty that can still fall for the trick.

The deceit should be obvious

The message offers a link that supposedly leads to a video with more explanation on the death of the celebrity. When accessed, it takes the potential victim to a poor imitation of a Facebook page.

The thumb image looks convincing, but fans of the artist know that it is actually taken from a video of her with Flaming Lips, called “Blonde SuperFreak Steals the Magic Brain.”

Unless they are totally determined to watch the video news, any user should be able to spot the signs of the scam, despite all efforts of the crooks to preserve appearances.

A closer examination reveals that the comments section and the statistics graphs are images and no real data is presented. Usually, these are evergreen elements that will be used for other campaigns too.

However, advertisements have been added to the page, whose main functionality is to make the user believe that the entire page is real, since they change at mouse-over action.

Hurdles in the way of watching the video

As a condition for showing the video, the crooks request the potential victim to share the message and then complete an online survey.

Sharing content that has not been witnessed first-hand is one of the main characteristics of an online survey scam. This ensures that the campaign survives and perpetuates for as long as possible, to as many victims as possible.

Completing online surveys is a simple way to make money, and crooks want to accelerate the process in order to end up with a larger profit. On some occasions, the user is asked personal details (email address and phone number), which can be used in future malicious activities.

Miley Cyrus has been the subject of online survey scams at least twice this year, when the same video image was used. Hopefully, users receiving the fake news will refrain from accessing the video and check reputable websites for related information.