Facebook scammers are spreading a vicious rumor on walls everywhere.
The headline reads: “ Chuck Norris dies at age 71! Not a Joke,” and is accompanied by a video of the star. You may remember Norris from such films as “The Karate Kid” and “Karate Kommandos,” and the CBS series “Walker, Texas Ranger.” The Naked Security blog reports that this is in fact another Facebook scam, and that Chuck Norris is still alive. What’s the deal behind this spam attack?
Facebook users who have been targeted will see this on their Facebook walls:
Chuck Norris dies at age 71! Not a Joke.
[LINK] See the video to find out how he died. News today of Chuck Norris death at age 71 has been met with confusion and humour, but sadly it is true.
Do not be alarmed! This is yet another rendition of the popular Starbucks gift card Facebook scam that tries to trick users into filling out a survey.
To report this scam, go to the Facebook Help Center. And if you have been attacked, be sure to change your password immediately.
Chuck Norris Spam Attack Dodges Associated Fan Pages
The Facebook Chuck Norris scam did not hit any of Chuck’s various pages, including Chuck’s “official Facebook Page,” where a January 20 post points to his reasons for endorsing Newt Gingrich pre-death scare. The Chuck Norris Athlete Facebook page has zero posts from anyone, aside from the announcement that Norris joined Facebook. Chuck also has a Fictional Character Facebook Page, which is written entirely in German.
But sometimes the scams do hit fan pages, tweets Naked Security’s Graham Cluley. Celebrity spam attacks have targeted actual Facebook fan pages, such as the Lady Gaga iPad scam and the Van Gogh Museum. “If a scam takes over the account of a Facebook page admin, it can post to their FB page,” tweets Cluley.
“We do see scams and spams attacking pages as well, just not as frequently,” Naked Security’s Chester Wisniewski tells us. “Pages cannot be accessed by rogue applications the same way as a wall post. They typically require you to phish the owner of the page and have a human do the spamming. This results in effort, and let’s be fair… Scammers are lazy or they would stick with a legit job.”
Images via Naked Security and ChuckNorris.com.