OK, admit it: You might want to see some of your Facebook friends naked.
Unfortunately, this impulse has led a reported 2 million Facebook users to click an ad and flood their computers with sexy, sexy malware.
Security provider Bitedefender discovered a Facebook virus getting clicks by promising naked videos of a user’s Facebook friends. The videos appear to be uploaded by the people supposedly in them. If you get curious and click, you’re first directed to what looks like a YouTube video and prompted to download Flash… which is actually a Trojan horse virus that will scan your computer and steal your naked photos. There’s a tiny bit of awful justice to it.
But seriously: Don’t click.
Bitedefender initially reported that thousands of people were infected, but it appears that number has grown exponentially, as USA Today upped the figure to the millions.
Here’s Bitedefender’s example of the scam:
There have been countless Facebook malware gambits using celebrity sex tapes as lures, like Rihanna and Taylor Swift. This one adds an extra layer of creepiness by using normal people as bait.
And that’s not the only scam gaining traction on Facebook. Sophos Security reports a hoax from 2010 is picking up steam again: If you see promises of a video saying “Girl killed herself” it’s not a snuff video, it’s a virus. Although if you’re eager to see a suicide clip, arguably you have bigger problems than a virus.
H/T USA Today | Photo via Flickr/Lee Davy (CC BY 2.0)