If you’re a Facebook user you’re probably aware that scams hit your newsfeed literally on a daily basis. There really is a new one just about every day, and they seem to get more insidious all the time.
The latest scam to hit the Facebook world is the “Naked Friend” scam, and it works something like this:
1 – You see either a post or an ad featuring the profile picture of one of your friends along with a message telling you to click a link to watch a video featuring your friend sans clothing.
2 – You click the link (either out of curiosity or because you want to warn your friend).
3 – As soon as you click the link, you’ll be redirected to a fake website that looks exactly like Facebook. Malicious code on that site will attempt to download a virus to your PC.
4 – If your security software won’t let the virus through, the infected website will pop up a message onto your screen telling you that you need to update Adobe Flash Player before you can watch the video. If you click the button to install the update, your PC will become infected with a virus.
If you see a “Naked Friend” post/ad anywhere on the page, DO NOT click it. And there’s no reason to inform your friend because his/her profile was simply chosen at random from your friends list. They had nothing to so with the scam and their account has not been hacked.
Bottom line: Always think “Safety First” whenever you’re on the Internet, and that goes double for Facebook. Take all posts, ads and messages with a grain of salt.