Facebook ‘Shocking Video’ Scam – ‘Something Moving Inside Her Gums’

Outline

Facebook Post featuring images of a young girl at the dentist claims that the little girl felt something moving around inside her gums. The post invites you to click a link to view video footage and see what was inside. 

Brief Analysis

The message is a typical ‘shocking video’ scam and is designed to trick users into installing rogue Facebook Apps, visiting dodgy survey pages, and downloading fake plugins that harbour malware. The case referenced in the video is real. A dentist in Brazil discovered a maggot infection inside 10-year-old Ana Cardoso’s gums. However, you can read information about the case – and even view a video – without visiting the scam website linked to in this Facebook Post.

Example

Detailed Analysis

According to a post appearing on Facebook, a little girl complained of something moving inside her gums and what dentists found was terrifying. The post, which features images of the girl at the dentist, invites you to click to watch a video of the process and discover what was inside the girl’s gums.

However, if you do click in the hope of seeing the video, you will first be asked to allow a video Facebook app to access your profile and post on your behalf. If you give permission as requested, the app will post the same scam message on your news feed, thereby exposing all of your Facebook friends to the threat as well. 

But, in fact, the video plugin is a malware program that can take over your browser, display malicious advertisements, and interfere with your computer’s security settings.

And, the page may automatically redirect you to a suspect third-party ‘survey’ website that offers the chance to win expensive prizes in exchange for providing your personal information. The information you provide will be shared with various Internet marketing groups which means you will soon be inundated with annoying promotional phone calls, emails, and letters.

The scammers receive a commission fee each time a person provides their information on one of the survey sites.

While the post itself is a scam, the case it refers to is real. A dentist in Brazil discovered that 10-year-old Ana Cardoso had a fly lava maggot infection in her gums. A video of the procedure shows a dentist removing 15 maggots from the youngster’s gums.

Should you actually be inclined to see this video, you can find it on YouTube without the need to install any rogue apps, download any malware, or fill in any surveys.

Perhaps in a rather lame effort to appear more legitimate, the scam video page actually has the YouTube video of the extraction embedded further down the page. However, many people will likely click the ‘plugin download’ link at the top of the page rather than scroll down to discover the embedded video.

Shocking video scam posts like this commonly appear on Facebook. If one comes your way, do not click it, do not install any apps or plugins that it recommends, and do not participate in any surveys that it links to.

In many cases, you can see the original footage on YouTube anyway.