From time to time, messages using images of famous people circulate on Facebook. Celebrities are beaten, arrested or killed – the point is, of course, that click on a link that steals login details or leads to suspicious depths of the Internet. The latest fraud focused on the quite controversial figure of Wojciech Cejrowski (not for the first time), announcing that his prank led to his death.
Facebook scam: something new every day
Wojciech Cejrowski is alive. Are you sure? After all, the news about his garbage comes from gazeta.pl (see photo below)! At least that’s what it seems at first glance. This may tempt site users to click, if only for some reason domain that indicates a reliable source of information.
Photo Facebook / screenshot
What happens when you click? A website appears that is supposed to give the impression of dealing with a reliable website on gazeta.pl. In fact, the fake address is gazeta–news.online, and the following URL reveals characters in the Russian alphabet. I wonder what the Cyrillic alphabet is doing here? If we delete the string of characters after “?”, then the page is inactive.
This is what the fake gazeta.pl website looks like. Photo screenshot
Fake website that impersonates a news website, is intended to create trust in the presented content. What will happen next? There is most likely audiovisual content here that requires playback confirm your age by logging in to your account on Facebook…. Of course, through fake login panel.
Wave after wave. Fraud with death, assault and investments in the background
News of a similarly sensational, dramatic or otherwise shocking tone are not at all an uncommon occurrence on Facebook. Beaten faces of celebrities, black and white photos and candles (or black ribbons) encourage you to click. Check out some of the screenshots selected from the Facebook group Scam – Fake websites and any other scams Internet users shared. Here, the address itself immediately suggests that the source is fake.
Photo Scam – Fake websites and any other scams / Facebook, screenshot
Why is this type of content shared on Facebook? Is it just about disinformation? One of the links leads, for example, to the official website of the Yemeni Al-Rashad Union party. Another to a prepared interview with Kuba Wojewódzki regarding an earning platform (in which Sławomir Mentzen allegedly revealed a link to a program where anyone can earn millions – just deposit a thousand zlotys to make money). Generally, all links in this type of entries lead to recognized websites by CERT as unsafe.
There are also waves of attacks that use photos of celebrities or politicians in context investing in cryptocurrencies, or other similar “shocking” or “astonishing” events. He also warned about them more than once, among others: CERT Poland. It is impossible not to notice that Wojciech Cejrowski and Sławomir Mentzen are very popular among fraudsters.
Photo CERT Polska / X, screenshot
Of course, it’s not just Facebook that is flooded with this type of news – it’s just as good on X.com. What’s more, they even use the image of Elon Musk himself, which “persuades” people to invest in various shady stock exchanges and projects. Let us add that these types of links are best report immediately to CERT.
What is the goal of this type of scam?
Why do criminals steal images of famous people? If you click on the link, in most cases you will land on website prepared by criminals, which will encourage you in various ways, through links, forms and other messages, to enter your data or send money. Or the one mentioned earlier extorting Facebook login details. This way, criminals can immediately take over your account login details, and your profile will be used to spread similar scams.
What does Facebook say about this?
We learned from Facebook representatives that this type of advertising often uses the so-called camouflage. That is display different content to Facebook’s ad review systems than to users. Such actions are, of course, against the website’s rules, which has even resulted in legal action being taken against those responsible for such programs. The service has also created additional detection models specifically for clickbait with celebrities, which automatically takes into account changing false advertising tactics. In the last quarter of 2023 413 million spam messages were removed from Facebook98.2% of which were acted upon before anyone reported them.
fot. rawpixel.com / Freepik
Facebook is devoting significant resources to the fight against advertisements that use public figures in a deceptive way. The multi-faceted approach includes deeper analysis, better regulatory enforcement and, in some cases, a law enforcement response. Of course, enforcement of this type of behavior is never perfect, and those posting these types of ads have significant funds, resources, and means to bypass the site’s systems. It is worth adding that Facebook is fighting not only against the phenomenon described in the text, but also against various other types of disinformation – focuses on slowing down the spread of this type of information so that it reaches as few recipients as possible, and also directs users to information from reliable sources.
What can be done in the case of advertisements displayed in user profiles that display manipulated images of famous people and are misleading? Best report this type of content by clicking the three dots in the upper right corner of the ad.
Source: Facebook, CERT Poland, own. Opening photo: image generated by DALL-E, self-edited
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