Clickjacking Scams Featuring Man-Eating Snakes and Other Unwatchable Videos Hit Facebook

Scams are pretty common on Facebook. The social network is a desirable target for hackers, mainly because of its huge over-trusting and oftentimes gullible user base. From scams advertising free Facebook credits to fake 'Verify Your Account' notices, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of users are conned every day.

Another scam to add to this list are clickjacking scams. If you spend a fair amount of time on the site, then you might have seen other people in your network posting links teasing "unwatchable" or "unbelievable" videos, like a snake eating a man.

The thing is, no such videos exist, and you're just going to get hit with a bunch of scam surveys and offers if you click on to any of them. As Sophos reports, these are part of clickjacking campaigns that are on the rise again on Facebook. They're called "clickjacking" because the scammers are basically hijacking your clicks by advertising false stuff, so that they get commissions or ad revenue from the sites where you're being redirected to.

Clicking on the play button secretly hides some additional code. Pressing the button said that I "liked" a different scam--this one related to a video allegedly showing a zookeeper being eaten by a giant snake.

In this way the scam can spread rapidly between your online friends, increasing the traffic to the real page the scammers want you to visit - one which asks you to take part in an online quiz or survey.

-- Graham Cluley, security researcher at Sophos

Man in a wheelchair falling down an elevator? Instructions on how to get an iPhone 4S for free? Other clips featuring "unbelievable" content? Wisen up and don't click on any of those links, if you know what's good for you.