If there is one social media platform that everyone in India loves, it¡¯s Facebook.?
Despite its flaws, it enjoys a massive user base in India. And this means it is also one of the platforms that scammers around the world prefer to lure users and trap them. And now a new scam has surfaced on Facebook's texting app -- Facebook Messenger.
This was first revealed by cybersecurity firm Sophos which has revealed that fraudsters are now using the messenger to phish user¡¯s login details. Strangers on the messenger first lure the attention of users by sending them a link which appears to be a video link with a message, ¡®Is it you?¡¯
This statement would intrigue anybody, tempting them to click on the link associated. However, that¡¯s when they enter the trap. The moment the page loads, they¡¯re greeted with a Facebook login screen -- something that¡¯s fairly ordinary, except, in this case, it isn¡¯t. It¡¯s instead a fake screen that will register your login details, which can then be used by hackers to breach into your account and gain complete control.
The Sophos blog post explains, ¡°After entering your password, there¡¯s a short delay, as you might expect when logging in to any online service, after which the crooks seem to pick from a range of other scams and redirect you to one of them randomly.¡±
This technique isn¡¯t new and has often been used countless times in emails, however, luring someone off-guard on the Facebook Messenger is surely a new way.?
The best way is to not interact with unknown sources. In this situation, however, when you open the link and it shows a login page, you should see the URL on top.?
Oftentimes, the URL will not have ¡®Facebook.com¡¯ in it and have random alphabets and characters or hyphens -- that itself is a clear indication that something isn¡¯t right. This URL technique can also work when getting links from phishing emails.?