Scammers capitalizing on Malaysia Airlines incident

Facebook users may have to think twice before clicking on a video that claims a Malaysia Airlines flight missing since Saturday has been found, and its passengers are alive.

The scam, which has been making the rounds of the social networking sites, will only lead curious netizens to another online survey, Hoax-Slayer.com reported.

"The claims in the message are untrue and there is no video footage. The message is a callous scam designed to trick Facebook users into promoting the bogus material via Facebook shares and participating in bogus online surveys," it said.

According to the site, the Facebook post claims the missing flight was found in the Bermuda Triangle with its passengers still alive.

It then invites users to click a link to view "Breaking News" video footage of the downed plane.

But in reality, Hoax-Slayer.com said the scam used a photograph depicting a plane crash near Bali in April 2013.

As of 4 p.m. Thursday, Malaysia Airlines has not indicated the missing flight – Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing – has been found.

The airline announced it is changing the flight code of flights between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing from MH-370 to MH-318 for flights from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing; and from MH-371 to MH-319 from Beijing to Kuala Lumpur.

It said this is a "mark of respect" to the passengers and crew of the flight, which remained missing for nearly a week.

"There are no changes to the frequency of our services and we will continue to operate double daily services to Beijing," the airline added.

Survey scam

Hoax-Slayer.com said those who click on the link in the scam post will be taken to a fake Facebook page and told that they must share the same message with their Facebook friends.

They in effect unwittingly promote the message across the network.

Users will then be taken to another fake page that supposedly hosts the video, and will encounter a popup "Security Check" that takes them to the online survey.

"But, no matter how many surveys or offers they complete, they will never get to see the promised video. The surveys will ask users to provide their mobile phone numbers, ostensibly to get survey results or register for a prize. But, fine print on the page will inform users that, by submitting their phone numbers, they are actually signing up to a very expensive SMS subscription that takes several dollars from the user's phone account every time it sends a text," Hoax-Slayer said.

Other versions of the scam may ask users to provide their name, address and phone number to continue participation, but in reality is sharing the data with online marketers, "resulting in unwanted email, phone calls and surface mail." — LBG, GMA News