A Facebook Messenger video scam that has been in circulation for the past few years appears to be back. With this phishing scam, fraudsters can get access to your Facebook account without you even knowing it. The scam was first reported more than five years ago and still in circulation. If you fall for it, you end up providing login credentials to the fraudsters yourself. Last year, cybersecurity firm Sophos also issued a warning for this scam.
How this scam on Facebook Messenger happens
Fraudsters first send a link on Messenger with the caption “Is it you in the video?”. The link preview appears as if it is a YouTube video. The moment you click on the video to check whether it is actually you or not in the video, you will be directed to a Facebook login page.
On the new page, you will see a prompt claiming that you will not be able to watch the video unless you login to your Facebook account and that is where the scam is. You are then redirected to a fake Facebook login page that is specifically designed to access the information that you type-in. The page looks similar to the original Facebook website and the moment you enter your credentials, fraudsters take control of your account.
How to know if a Facebook link in fake
There are multiple ways to check whether a Facebook link is fake or original but the easiest way to check is to go through the URL. If you want to be sure about a Facebook link, check if the URL starts with HTTPS or HTTP. Almost all websites are now following HTTPS protocol, including Facebook. HTTPS uses the SSL/TLS protocol to encrypt data and any page claiming to be Facebook and does not have HTTPS in the URL is fake.
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