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Information Security, Security, Social

Fake Pages on Facebook

If it looks to good to be true, it probably is.

I’ve recently seen a rise in fake pages on FB. Here’s a quick example.


Check the page…

Firstly, check how many posts there on the page before you react – in this case just TWO POSTS! Already a huge alarm bell should be ringing and you’ve only made ONE extra check.


Page transparency

But if you want to go further, that’s easy. There is a handy “Page Transparency” link on pages in FB.

Clicking this gives you some good information on the page.

Here we get our second huge alarm bell – the page is less than month old!! (writing on 17/Oct/2020)


URL shorteners

Lastly, check that link again – BIT•LY is a URL shortener and the problem here is you have absolutely no way of knowing where it points you. I STRONGLY recommend that you NEVER click on shortened URLs.

BUT if you DO click almost ANYTHING could happen. It simply isn’t worth the risk.


Click at you peril!

So what happened in a SAFE TEST on this link?

It should be noted though that these malicious/fake links actually use a revolving set of pages that can present very different threats or options.

Well, dunno about you but I’m clicking for £50!


Ah! So SAFE BROWSING is an excellent feature built into all modern browsers. I’d really really hope that EVERYONE would stop at this point.

Please please please don’t ignore security warnings!

But what if you did (WARNING – this one is tame, it could be far far worse!)


Oooh! A game! (Ahem!) A badly designed game at that.


Let’s play anyway…

Oh no! Never mind we get three goes!!!


Yeah!!!! We won!!!!


From this point on you’re prompted for contact details and these are what the attackers really want. I guess enough people fall for these tricks as these have been going for decades.


Other destinations

So, what do some of the other con pages look like?


Remember!

If you see a screen like this, STOP and don’t continue!

About harlekwinblog

"Thoughts of an idle mind." Information Security professional.

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