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Two-year study reveals the top five most popular Facebook scams
A piece of clickbait entitled 'Guess who viewed your profile?' is the most popular Facebook scams used by cyber-criminals to trick users.
16:26 05 November 2014
A comprehensive, two-year study into Facebook scams has revealed the top five tricks use by cyber-criminals to lure users.
A team of behaviour analysts and psychologists at Bitdefender who analysed the scams said: “The greatest vulnerabilities appear because of general human dispositions that may hit any user at one point in their life. It’s hard for us to acknowledge our irrational behaviors, or that we’re blindly indulging in impulses we typically attribute to the less educated.”
The analysis revealed a strong correlation between victims and the less informed, especially when it comes to basic Facebook functionalities.
“While still a niche category, atrocity videos are gaining popularity. ‘Like and share’ schemes using horrendous images, such as maimed animals, suffering children and tortured women now account for almost 1 percent of all scams according to our research,” says Nansi Lungu, Bitdefender behaviour analyst.
The five most popular Facebook scams are:
- Guess who viewed your profile? – 45.50%
- Facebook functionality scams – 29.53%
- Giveaway scams – 16.51%
- Celebrity scams – 7.53%
- Atrocity videos – 0.93%