Facebook Scam Alert: Think Twice Before Clicking That Link about the Lost Malaysia Jet

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The disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines jet is awful. Now, some terrible malware spammers have gone on Facebook and exploited the story for a quick buck. Don’t fall for it.

The hoax is heartlessly easy to fall for. It starts when you come across a Facebook post that says “Malyasian Airlines Finally Found!” or “Video of the Malaysia MH370 Plane Found in Bermuda Triangle!” promising “50 people alive saved!” You know, just the type of good news you were hoping to hear. And perhaps you’re so excited to learn the details of this miracle that you don’t check the host of the story, or don’t know that the 239-person flight has not yet been located, despite a six-day search.

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You might also overlook the sketchy formatting, excessive use of exclamation points, or the fact that the photos are of US Airways Flight 1549 or Lion Air Flight 904, flights that crashed into water but had no fatalities.

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Yahoo News never posted this story. You heard it straight from the source.

Click. You’re immediately asked to share the story with your friends before reading it. (Now the post has spread to their news feeds, too.) Next, you’ll be asked to fill out a few questionnaires. Before you know it, these scumbags have crawled back to the dark underbelly of the Internet with your sensitive information.

In sum: It’s a classic phishing scam dressed in shameless clickbait. It’s hard to believe that someone could stoop so low as to take advantage of the grief people feel over a world tragedy.

At the very least, you can avoid this and other cons by following these steps.

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