Tampa Bay, USA (ots) –
Cyber criminals have a new trick in the UK: they search for posts about funerals on Facebook. They then wait until a funeral home posts an official message about the deceased. Once the funeral home has posted the post, they quickly place a comment directly underneath it. To increase the credibility of the post, they often add photos and personal information about the deceased.
Different versions of the comment are already circulating. One calls for donations for the bereaved. Another offers friends and relatives of the deceased the opportunity to join a live stream of the funeral. What they all have in common is that readers of the comments are always asked to share the comment and thus alert their private contacts to the appeal for donations or the live stream with a malicious link.
Expert Dr. Martin J. Krämer, Security Awareness Advocate at KnowBe4, explains the criminals’ approach: “If a victim clicks on this, they are redirected via several fake websites to a fake streaming website where they have to register to access the live stream. They are then asked to enter their credit card details. A three-day free trial membership would then be activated, which includes not only the live stream but also all the films offered on the website. The trial membership can be canceled at any time. However, if you look at the offer a little more closely, you will quickly discover the small print note that when you join a trial or regular membership, a so-called ‘second membership’ would automatically be activated – associated with a significant increase in costs.”
British funeral directors have already reacted and started to add a note to their online announcements stating that their funerals will not be livestreamed: https://www.nafd.org.uk/funeral-advice/livestream-and-social-media-funeral-scams/
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Original content from: KnowBe4, transmitted by news aktuell
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