Facebook users warned about 'I can't believe he's gone' posts hijacking accounts

FACEBOOK users have been warned about a new scam doing the rounds, luring people with fake links about 'sudden death'.

A widespread phishing campaign has emerged on the platform, with hackers posting: “I can't believe he's gone. I'm going to miss him so much” in an attempt to get people to click on a dodgy link.

The dodgy link takes users to a website that steals their Facebook login credentials, BleepingComputer first reported.

This particular campaign started about a year ago.

Since then, threat actors have built an army of hacked accounts to continue selling the scam to other unsuspecting users.

When a message or link comes from a friend or family member's account, it's easy to think it's trustworthy, which leads many people to fall for the scam.

The 'I can't believe he's gone' campaign is based on two risky connections.

One is a so-called Facebook.com link that you shouldn't click on, and the other is a fake BBC News article.

Facebook tries to remove unsafe posts, but the platform often cannot keep up with the speed at which threat actors post.

However, Facebook has largely managed to deactivate the unreliable Facebook.com redirect link in the messages so that they no longer work.

According to BleepingComputer, the links take users to different sites depending on the type of device they are using.

If you click on the link on Facebook via a smartphone, you will be redirected to a fake news site called 'NewsAmericaVideos', where users will be asked to enter their account details.

This site is very convincing.

But if you enter your Facebook login details, it will be stolen by the hackers.

Your account can then be used to promote the same or similar phishing messages to your friends and family.

To avoid this fate, be careful and set up two-factor authentication (2FA).

This phishing attack does not attempt to steal 2FA information, so Facebook users who enable this security feature in their settings will be spared from the attack.

Two-factor authentication is becoming increasingly popular and is also available for Google and WhatsApp accounts.

It means users need both a password and a passcode sent to them to access accounts and prevent hacking.

2

Why does it feel like Facebook is spying on you?

This is what you need to know…

• The magic of targeted advertising is that it should feel relevant to you, even if you don't understand why.
• Facebook doesn't need to spy on your real conversations since you're handing over so much information anyway.
• Follow this link and you can download everything Facebook knows about you. Most of you will quickly realize that this is a staggering amount of information.
• Advertisers can use the information collected from your activity across the web and across multiple devices, even if you are not logged in to Facebook or other services.
• They will probably know where you live, what you like, who your friends are, how much money you make, what your political beliefs are and much more.
• So if you get ads for something you've talked about out loud, they're almost certainly advertisers who are very good at predicting your interests.
• It could also be that there is an ad campaign running and you saw an ad and didn't notice it. You've then talked about it without realizing you've been advertised, only to notice future advertisements – which suddenly seem suspicious.
• Suppose you were talking about a holiday to Scotland, and then suddenly a holiday to Scotland is offered.
• Maybe you've never searched for anything related to that before.
• But Facebook could use information about your level of wealth, your interests on past holidays, the time of year (advertisements for winter Scottish retreats are common in the colder months) and your location.
• What looks like snooping is actually just clever advertising.