Application security, Malware

An unadulterated scam: Adult video ruse compromises European Facebook users

An adult video scam that was discovered infecting Russian Facebook users back in April is now targeting Europeans, Kaspersky Lab reported via its Securelist blog.

To execute the scam, the attackers compromise a Facebook account and use it post a link to an “18+” video, supposedly available on YouTube. The perpetrators then add fraudulent likes from the compromised account-holder's list of friends, hoping to pique the curiosity of either the original user or his or her contacts.

Clicking the link takes the victim to a YouTube-lookalike web page residing on malicious domain. A pop-up banner instructs the user to install a browser extension; however this extension “gains rights to read all the data in the browser, which the fraudsters can later use to get all the passwords, logins, credit card details and other confidential user information that is entered,” the blog post warned.

Bradley Barth

As director of multimedia content strategy at CyberRisk Alliance, Bradley Barth develops content for online conferences, webcasts, podcasts video/multimedia projects — often serving as moderator or host. For nearly six years, he wrote and reported for SC Media as deputy editor and, before that, senior reporter. He was previously a program executive with the tech-focused PR firm Voxus. Past journalistic experience includes stints as business editor at Executive Technology, a staff writer at New York Sportscene and a freelance journalist covering travel and entertainment. In his spare time, Bradley also writes screenplays.

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