Top tip, people: when some dude on the internet says he has pix or video of bin Laden being shot, don’t believe him.
Scammers and spammers have jumped on the news, seeing the perfect opportunity to lure the gullible into a trap. Fake links and pics have started popping up all over the web and on social networks.
A lot of internet scams start with some sort of honeytrap – a chunk of clickbait designed to tempt the unwary and make them click something. The bait can be anything, but usually it’s designed to pull in as many people as possible. If the promise of pornography doesn’t work, perhaps the promise of pictures of dead terrorist leaders will.
At the other end of the link there could be heaven knows what, but it’s unlikely to be the juicy stuff you expected.
Instead, it could be all manner of malware, or an attempt to persuade you to had over your Facebook or Gmail or online banking password.
In a similar vein, watch your email inbox for unlikely-sounding pleas for help. If some stranger pops up claiming to have $70 million of bin Laden’s money in a random Nigerian bank account, and offering to split it with you once you’ve shelled out a few thousand for “administration fees”, don’t believe him either.
(Via LA Times)