Scammers are already taking advantage of the news that the US conducted a raid overnight to kill 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, merely hours after the death of the Al Qaeda leader was announced. Just like with previous scams, they are leveraging Facebook with sensational headlines to target ignorant victims.
This version says something along the lines of “SHOCKING NEW video of OSAMA BIN LADENS DEATH!!” or “Exclusive BANNED VDEIO footage of Osama Bin Laden being killed!!!” followed by a link, according to Sophos. Clicking on the link takes you to a Facebook page which urges you to like and share the link with your Facebook friends before you can watch the video.
Like with previous Facebook scams, sharing the link with others just helps spread it further across the social network. Once again, instead of the supposed shocking video you are instead presented with a survey which you are told you must complete before you can go any further. This is how the scammer earns his or her money: a commission for every survey completed. As a reminder, you should also never hand over your mobile phone number as scammers will sign you up for premium rate SMS services.
As I’ve recommended before, if you see a scam like this one, report it. Then go check your own wall to make sure you’re not spreading the scam; the sooner you clean it up and unlike the page, the better. You can even contact Facebook Security if you’d like to.
The only official thing that has been released in regards to this news is a 9-minute speech by US President Barack Obama, which I’ve embedded below. If you want more information, you can read the article Osama bin Laden is dead.
