Scammers Roil Facebook with Fake 'Missing Malaysian Plane Found' Messages

The media and news have been in overdrive over the latest updates of the missing flight MH370 of Malaysian Airlines. Not only does everyone know the plan has yet to be found after it went missing over a month ago, but at every notification of an update gullible internet surfers are instantly attracted like white on rice.

In the world of scams and spam campaigns, cybercrooks are repeatedly exploiting the missing Malaysian plane through social channels like Facebook. One of the particular scams exploiting the missing Malaysian plane is one that claims to be a "Video of Malaysia MH370 Plane found in Bermuda." Of course, the famous Bermuda triangle has been the scene of many planes and boats gone missing with the mysterious ore always hovering over throughout of this area in the Atlantic Ocean.

There have been other cases where scammers are spreading notifications on Facebook pages and member walls that the passengers are alive and the breaking news footage is supposedly on CNN. These scams are designed to trick users into sharing the scam with other Facebook friends. In doing so, the scam-links redirect users to a page where they are instructed to complete numerous online surveys, claiming to be some "security check." Once some of the surveys are completed, users are asked that they enter their phone number. This ultimately leads to unsuspecting victims signing up for premium mobile serves that inflate cell phone bills by tens of dollars or more.

Scammers are taking the missing Malaysian Plane exploitation on Facebook to another level in some cases. They have also utilized Facebook ads, which allow them to target certain demographics or ones more apt to fall for their scam. In recent studies conducted by security researchers from Bitdefender, it was revealed how scammers are increasingly abusing Facebook to lure users to their malicious or scam-laden websites. These cybercrooks are not backing down at leveraging platforms like Facebook no time soon, so we must all utilize common sense and caution when perusing social networks like Facebook.

It has long been almost a tradition for hackers and scammers to exploit popular news events so they may conjure up a grand scheme that ends up getting them paid at the expense of victimized computer users. It is just so happens that the missing Malaysian Plane and all of the events surrounding the unfortunate incident is a gift that keeps on giving when you look at how the media is continually covering each step of the search efforts. Hackers know this all-too well and are capitalizing on it every step of the way.