The Facebook Video Scam – careful what you click on

If only ’cause i’m fed up of seeing it in my Facebook timeline, (and to help you avoid embarrassing yourself), here is a warning about some dodgy scam links that are doing the rounds on Facebook at the moment.

It starts when you see that one of your friends has ‘liked’ or ‘shared’ a link to a video. As your friend has approved it, you will assume it’s safe. Usually the video is titled something like:

98 Percent of people can’t watch this video for more that 15 seconds.

Look what this girl is wearing at the beach!

Daily Video! Look what happens next!

And the more embarrassing (and popular) ones are accompanied by a suggestive image of a partially clad young woman.

Needless to say, it’s not a good idea to click it. Whilst it appears to be a video embedded in the Facebook page, it’s really a scam to redirect you to a dodgy website, usually full of adverts or surveys. The person that owns the website will receive a commission when you click the link. The bad news is the video you hoped to see doesn’t really exist, and when you clicked the play button you inadvertently shared the video with all your friends, because the play button actually hides a Facebook ‘Like’ or ‘Share’ button.

This is one of the oldest scams going on Facebook, but it’s still the most popular. Social media is a great way to distribute spam and junk content like this, so be cautious; never assume that because you see it on Facebook and your friends have shared it, that it’s a good thing to look at!

There are hundred of other variants of Facebook scam, if you would like to know more, here is a great site that explains all of the hoax / junk / scam stuff you’re likely to find on Facebook: http://facecrooks.com/

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