Beware of tricksters on Facebook.
This is not a new warning, but at year’s end, 2011 was the year of social engineering tactics being used to trick Facebookers into going to affiliate marketing sites in order to fill out surveys. And users of the social media site did just that by the millions.
In the past, online criminals used Facebook for identity theft or phishing scams. But these days, it’s much more profitable to use the site for the defrauding of affiliate businesses. These scammers directed their victims toward the affiliate marketing sites in three out of every four scams attempted last year.
The scam works like this: links are posted on Facebook, asking Facebook users to go to the fake sites to fill out various surveys. These surveys generate affiliate payments for the scammers, and cost the legitimate businesses that pay the fees.
Legitimate affiliate sites are big business, and a popular way to generate user traffic. Businesses pay sites a fee for referring visitors to the site, often offering rewards. When a scammer gets in on the action, they get paid and the business gets nothing.
The catch is that when a person fills out one of these surveys, the scammer can hack in and get the personal information found there, and use it to commit identity theft.
And the scary part is that the cybercriminals are getting smarter about how they conduct this scam. They’re now tricking users into sharing the link, called “like jacking.” By clicking on the link, a user unknowingly unleashes a malicious script which makes it appear that he or she has “liked” the link, and shares it with his or her Facebook friends.
Be careful when it comes to these links. Don’t click on any links that are unsolicited. Better safe than sorry.
