A viral Facebook posting claiming there’s a “sex tape” leaked by her boyfriend is a scam designed to spread bogus surveys or worse. Such scams are known to spread Facebook apps that spread spam even further or can download malware to one’s computer.
The oddly worded scam reads: “[19+ VíDEO] Míléy Cyrús Séx tapé Leáks By Her New Boyfrínd Yesterday ... Míléy is very much sad after wathing this.”
However, there’s no content and users are immediately sent to a fake Facebook-looking website that asks users to share the fake Cyrus scam.
“But, this is a trick used to make you share this fake website so it can become popular. There are no videos on this website and the image of the on the website are fakes,” reads a posting from Online Threat Alerts. “Also, this fake website will ask you to complete surveys in order for you to be granted access to all videos. But, this also is a trick to get you to complete the surveys that the cybercriminals behind this scam will get paid for.”
If you’ve shared the article, it’s best to delete it from your wall and “unlike” it.
It isn’t recommended to fill out the surveys because the information--including addresses, e-mail addresses, and even phone numbers--can be sold to more scammers.
And if you have downloaded a rogue Facebook app, there’s steps to get rid of it.
One has to access Facebook’s application settings, which will list all applications.
After that, go down to the section that lists the apps and click the “X” button on the right side to remove it. Some fake apps have names including “Yahoo,” “Fox News,” and “CNN.”
