- Jan 24, 2011
- 9,378
Scammers are posting fake episodes of The Simpsons on video sharing websites to trick users into participating in adware-pushing surveys.
Security researchers from Kaspersky Lab have spotted such scams on Dailymotion, the second-most trafficked video sharing site after YouTube.
The rogue video entries claim to be full episodes of the highly popular animated TV series, but when users try to play them a message claims they were removed due to copyright violations.
This is a social engineering trick that take advantage of the fact that people are used to seeing copyright infringement error messages on video sharing sites.
The intention is to get them to visit links included in descriptions as alternative places to watch the allegedly removed episodes.
These links lead to websites that display an video player thumbnail and an associated message claiming the content is locked until one of several "offers" is completed.
The offers involve taking surveys or playing games that try to trick users into installing an Internet toolbar called IWON.
This application bombards users with ads while surfing the Web and its purpose is to generate money for the scammers.
"'IWON' (example file name: IWONSetup2.3.76.6.ZLman000.exe) is actually the infamous MyWebSearch Adware type of application, detected by most AV products, though not all,"
Source
Security researchers from Kaspersky Lab have spotted such scams on Dailymotion, the second-most trafficked video sharing site after YouTube.
The rogue video entries claim to be full episodes of the highly popular animated TV series, but when users try to play them a message claims they were removed due to copyright violations.
This is a social engineering trick that take advantage of the fact that people are used to seeing copyright infringement error messages on video sharing sites.
The intention is to get them to visit links included in descriptions as alternative places to watch the allegedly removed episodes.
These links lead to websites that display an video player thumbnail and an associated message claiming the content is locked until one of several "offers" is completed.
The offers involve taking surveys or playing games that try to trick users into installing an Internet toolbar called IWON.
This application bombards users with ads while surfing the Web and its purpose is to generate money for the scammers.
"'IWON' (example file name: IWONSetup2.3.76.6.ZLman000.exe) is actually the infamous MyWebSearch Adware type of application, detected by most AV products, though not all,"
Source
