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Topic: Social Enterprise

Scam warning: I can't believe a GIRL did this because of Justin Bieber

Summary: A new scam that used Justin Biebier's celebrity status garnered 20,000 Likes before Facebook could stop it.

Emil Protalinski

By for Friending Facebook |

Old Facebook scams were reborn under new headlines this week, promising the usual free products and/or taking advantage of celebrity obsessions. One of the most effective ones was titled "I can't believe a GIRL did this because of Justin Bieber," which appeared on thousands of status updates and garnered more than 20,000 Facebook Likes.

M86 Security Labs has branded it a "likejacking" scam (a play on the term clickjacking, which means prompting a victim to click something while a different action is taken behind the scenes) and said it was similar to previous campaigns that were first observed last year. Clicking the link leads to FouTube page, a fake version of YouTube, that says "Please Watch this video only if you are 16 years or older." The FouTube player video window is overlayed with a hidden iframe; clicking on it anywhere will submit a Facebook Like and spread the post on the victim's Facebook page.

That's not the end of the scam. A fake Facebook dialog box then pops up and asks the victim to verify his or her age by completing a survey with links to auto insurance websites. That's how the scammer earns his or her money: by convincing the user to visit one of these websites to complete a survey, they are probably paid by their affiliates, not to mention all the ads on the FouTube website.

Facebook has since stopped this scam, but because of how it was implemented, and due to the social network's size, it spread very quickly. The timing of this scam is a little ironic. Just last month Facebook teamed up with Justin Bieber to help stop digital abuse.

Topics: Social Enterprise, Browser, Security, Software Development

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19 comments
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  • RE: I can't believe a GIRL did this because of Justin Bieber

    Who's Justin Bieber?
    jeremychappell
    Reply Vote

    • RE: I can't believe a GIRL did this because of Justin Bieber

      @jeremychappell you're very lucky not to know who he is :D
      explodingwalrus
      Reply Vote

      • Justin is actually nice boy

        @explodingwalrus: I mean that people may like what he composes/sings or not, but he has kind, cute, "no malicious bone" personality.
        DDERSSS
        Reply Vote

    • Some famous lesbian. [nt]

      [nt]
      olePigeon
      Reply Vote

    • RE: I can't believe a GIRL did this because of Justin Bieber

      @jeremychappell
      A little girl who can't sing a note. Kind of like Ke$ha.
      Loverock Davidson
      Reply Vote

    • RE: I can't believe a GIRL did this because of Justin Bieber

      @jeremychappell
      excactly who is he? Is he new American Idol?
      Ram U
      Reply Vote

      • RE: I can't believe a GIRL did this because of Justin Bieber

        @Rama.NET
        He's the new US celebrity idle.
        Agnostic_OS
        Reply Vote

      • RE: I can't believe a GIRL did this because of Justin Bieber

        @Rama.NET

        <s>He</S> She....
        The one and only, Cylon Centurion
        Reply Vote

    • RE: I can't believe a GIRL did this because of Justin Bieber

      @jeremychappell Justin Bieber is a young Canadian man who started out posting his music on YouTube. His success has rocketed him into fame very quickly. Here is his Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Bieber

      Regardless of anyones taste in music, I think that most people agree that he is a very talented young man.
      wpgsgeekygirl
      Reply Vote

    • I do not know, but he does look like a girl

      @jeremychappell
      :|
      Tim Cook
      Reply Vote

    • RE: I can't believe a GIRL did this because of Justin Bieber

      @jeremychappell And I want to add: what is Facebook? Seriously though, deleted that piece of &%$%$#$ a long time ago. Even then, it was not a simple process!
      tora201
      Reply Vote

  • RE: I can't believe a GIRL did this because of Justin Bieber

    I don't get it. Why does anyone have a Facebook account anymore? Nobody I know has one; they've all deleted and moved on to more useful things.
    Droid101
    Reply Vote

    • RE: I can't believe a GIRL did this because of Justin Bieber

      @Droid101

      Keep in touch with people. I only use mine for that....

      Sadly, others use it to *ahem* spam other people with Frakville requests, and other <S>Zynga</S> digi-herpes related content.
      The one and only, Cylon Centurion
      Reply Vote

      • RE: I can't believe a GIRL did this because of Justin Bieber

        @Cylon Centurion 0005
        >>and other Zynga digi-herpes related content.
        LOL. :D that is the best thing I read in a while. :D
        Ram U
        Reply Vote

  • RE: I can't believe a GIRL did this because of Justin Bieber

    Welcome to the world of social network malware or can we call it as malware 2.0 like Social networking sites made it as Web 2.0. People should learn one thing, they should not click on a link unless they are ready for the sequences for sure. The actual message from this blog got lost because of some successful teenage singer was mentioned. Weird.
    Ram U
    Reply Vote

  • Have many friends/family that fall for this stuff

    I appreciate information like this as I find myself constantly posting information about Facebook safety and security threats. I only invite family and friends that I know in real life so my friends list is minimal which I believe is step 1 of social network safety. It is actually kind of sad that many people blindly fall for stuff like this and "like", become a fan of, or allow access to any app that comes across their feed. The real question is why does Facebook allow such things? It seems to me they are not doing anything to stop the rogue applications and fake pages and such.
    bobiroc
    Reply Vote

  • RE: I can't believe a GIRL did this because of Justin Bieber

    There was another one with Miley Cyrus, saw it yesterday, reported it.
    alsobannedfromzdnet
    Reply Vote

  • &quot;Facebook has since stopped this scam&quot; - WRONG

    No they have not. Just saw this a few minutes ago.
    Please stop spreading a false sense of security. I'd expect a little more research from a zdnet.com writer.
    rockandrollnerd
    Reply Vote

  • RE: I can't believe a GIRL did this because of Justin Bieber

    Howdy, This web-site is amazing, <a href="http://www.new-york-nfl-jerseys.com" style="text-decoration: none; color: black;">nfl jerseys</a> which you set to implement cms ? Wordpress or maybe a 2nd?
    jackson1984-24316069205748857739440257893812
    Reply Vote
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