Amy Winehouse Scam Hits Facebook

Amy Winehouse’s tragic death over the weekend, at the age of 27 from a suspected drug overdose, shocked the world.

But no more than a few hours after the ‘Rehab’ singer had been found dead in her Camden flat, shameful scammers on Facebook were trying to take full advantage of the general public’s morbid curiosity in “evidence” of the singer’s passing by claiming to have either uploaded a video of the singer on crack during the hours before her death or actual footage of her overdosing.

These are basically cheap (but sadly also successful) methods used to entice people into clicking links, which obviously (and frustratingly for those of you who click) do NOT have a video for you to see. The current Winehouse scams that have appeared in your news feed over the weekend on Facebook look like this;

Amy Winehouse is dead!!
Leaked Video!! Amy Winehouse On Crack hours before death
winehousevideo.blogspot.com
Amy Winehouse getting high on crack just hours before she died

Video leaked of amy winehouse’s death!!! Warning: Graphical Content.
d.justamazing.co.be
Amy Winehouse OVERDOSE VIDEO LEAKED! – RIP AMY

[Screen Shots]

Do not click on these! Clicking on these types of links lead you to an online survey, which generates cash for the scammers and therefore earns them commission for each survey that victims complete – hence the reason why the links are usually relating to stories in the news that are of interest to people. Similar scams have done the rounds when Osama Bin Laden was killed, with similar links to online surveys being posted claiming to be a gruesome vid of the terrorist’s downfall.

When you click on the links, you will be redirected to pages like this.

If you see links to Winehouse videos in your newsfeed – just don’t click on them. If you hover over the link, you can see if the web address goes to a recognisable address.  So, if you must click on a link, ensure that it is going to a respected website (with the full address being correct – as scammers attempt to trick people using URL addresses that look similar).

Have you clicked on one? Curiosity can get the better of the best of us all. Well, you now need to delete them by clicking in the top right hand corner and selecting delete or reporting them as spam by selecting ‘Report Post/Spam’ from the drop-down menu. You will need to check your profile to see that it doesn’t have any unwanted “Likes”…and then run a full scan of your anti-virus software.

The examples given in this article may not be the only Winehouse-themed scam to hit Facebook – as many varieties may show up in your news feed. Therefore ALWAYS be careful on social media, as scammers are always trying to trick you into clicking on links. So be careful!

Author:- Andrew Parker is the head copywriter for computer forensics experts Intaforensics.