GMA News Online SciTech » Social Media

The United States Embassy on Thursday warned visitors to its Facebook page against falling for a shared link with the topic "Top 10 Most Popular Videos."

 

In a message on its Facebook wall, the embassy said such messages are classified as malware and will automatically share and post to the walls of the victim's friends.

 

"Please be informed that if you see any shared links with the topic 'Top 10 Most Popular Videos' on Facebook, don't click on them. This is classified as Malware and will automatically share and post to your friends' wall on your behalf. Best way to avoid this is to delete the post if you find it on your wall," it said.

 

It also cited an article on Facecrooks.com, a site that watches out for Facebook-based scams.

 

Facecrooks.com said other variants of the message may claim to be the 10 best videos, most popular videos, or most wanted videos.

 

"Clicking the link on the Facebook wall post takes you to the following page designed to look like Facebook ... Clicking on any of the videos will take you to another page where you are asked to install a YouTube player upgrade. This is in fact a rogue browser extension," it said.

 

It said the scammers appear to think users will believe the fake Facebook page and YouTube plugins are legitimate.

 

"Installing the plugin leaves your system totally vulnerable to the developer. Similar scams have been known to pack malware and viruses. Installing the plugin is definitely not worth the risk to your system. We decided to stop here and advise you to do the same," it said.

 

The site recommended clicking the small “X” located in the top right hand corner of the post, and running a complete system scan on the computer machine "to make sure the code didn’t infect your system." — TJD, GMA News