Robin Williams' Last Video Saying Goodbye: Scam

Story:

Robin Williams says goodbye with his phone video before suicide.

Analysis:

A story circulating heavily on Facebook claims to show a link to a phone video of actor Robin Williams saying goodbye to his fans before his suicide. The story on Facebook developed within 48 hours of the news surrounding the actor’s death and was shared millions of times. But unfortunately, it is another clickjacking scam.

Picture about Robin Williams' Last Video Saying Goodbye, Scam — Robin Williams’ Last Video Saying Goodbye, Scam

Robin Williams’ Death

The actor-comedian Robin Williams hanged himself and was found dead in his San Francisco Bay home on 11 August 2014. After the initial reports talked about the apparent suicide of the popular actor, along with many speculations online, there also came up this scam on Facebook.

Facebook Scam

The message on Facebook appears like a link to the ‘exclusive’ video recorded by Robin Williams before his suicide. It also includes a teaser image of the actor that’s supposedly taken from the footage.

As reported in a blog on Symantec.com, the users who clicked the link were taken to a fake BBC News website, where they were first instructed to share the video before viewing it and then had to participate in various surveys. There was no such video showing the last recorded message of Robin Williams. Certain other versions of the scam can also trick the user to download malicious software. As told by Satnam Narang of Symantec security, “Scammers operating these sites use affiliate programs to earn money for the completion of surveys and file downloads“.

Scams like this are disgraceful attempts that capitalize on news of celebrity deaths. So be careful while clicking links on Facebook that come with compelling headlines.