Fraudsters would love tricking this many users

Oct 21, 2014 13:43 GMT  ·  By

A flurry of tweets about the British graffiti artist Banksy being arrested and his identity exposed started to circulate on Monday, following a fake news report from a website known for its satirical pieces.

The artist is still loose, doing what he does best, populating cities with urban art. According to an article in National Report, Banksy was picked up on Monday morning by the London Metropolitan Police and questioned for hours.

The news piece is believable, and visitors not knowing about the satirical inclination of the website would definitely fall for the hoax, without giving it a second thought, as a search for the #freebanksy hashtag clearly shows.

However, this sort of news could actually act as a wake-up call for gullible Internet users, and make them look for the source of news skirting the sensational.

Crooks could leverage even hoaxes to make some money

In most cases, cybercriminals, although not as talented a writer as the editors of National Report, deliver messages claiming to direct users to rare content only to steer them to online locations serving malware.

The most prevalent type of scam leads users to completing online surveys, which earn the crooks a commission.

The scheme is extremely simple and preys mostly on the curiosity of the potential victim regarding a recent social event that made some online ripples.

More often than not, Facebook is used to perpetrate the scam, which involves sending a message with the lure from a compromised account. If the victim bites the bait, they are requested to share the post to their friends and then to complete a survey in order to get access to some rare content (generally a video is promoted).

Sharing ensures that the scam passes to other users, while completing the survey puts money in the pockets of the crooks. Of course, no footage is provided, no matter how many surveys are completed, because it does not exist.

The dangerous part is that sometimes personal details are requested, such as phone number or email address. Giving them up is a sure way to being targeted by other malicious campaigns that could deliver malicious software.

Verify the information before believing it

The Banksy arrest hoax gained incredible traction on Twitter that his name was included in the Trends list. Should this have been used for more nefarious purposes than just to create a commotion among fans, the number of victims may have been quite significant.

Catalin Cosoi, Bitdefender Chief Security Strategist, recommends getting news from reputable sources; it would be difficult for big subjects to pass unnoticed.

One of the latest scams relying on bits of reality has fraudsters deliver Ebola-themed emails to attract recipients into different traps. Even US-CERT issued a warning about this type of messages.