Alert: ‘Watch your video’ virus targeting Facebook users in Vietnam

If you happen to receive a message via Facebook asking you to click on a link to watch an apparent video of yourself, do not hit your mouse.

The message has been transmitted to many Facebook users in Vietnam via their Inbox or Messenger apps since Monday, in the latest scam targeting members of the world’s largest social network, Internet security experts warned.

“This video belong [sic] to you? That’s funny,” the message reads, enclosing a link titled “Click for [sic] watch video,” which points to the fun-metin2.com address (attention readers, do not click on this link).

The link is also accompanied by a thumbnail, which is the profile picture of the recipient.

The scam message is seen in this screenshot posted on the Facebook page of Anton Dat.

This sophisticated trick has in fact duped many users into believing that the video is really meant for them, and eventually clicking on the dangerous link.

“When your Facebook friends send you that message, it means they have been infected with a virus,” Nguyen Minh Duc, an Internet security expert at tech firm FPT, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

When clicked, the link will direct users to a Facebook-like website, which requests that users install an add-on for their browser to be able to watch the video.

The fake Facebook website asks users to install an add-on, as seen in this screenshot posted on the Facebook page of Nguyễn Minh Đức.

“And downloading the add-on means getting your computer infected with the malicious software,” Duc said.

“It seems that many users in Vietnam have been fooled this way.”

Infected users will automatically bombard people in their Facebook friendlists with the same message.

Many Vietnamese netizens said in their status updates on Monday morning that they had fallen victim to the virus, warning friends against clicking on the link in their messages.

Facebook, which boasts 1.3 billion users worldwide, remains a fertile land for scam apps and cybercriminals with various tricks to dupe users.

Earlier this month, Cheetah Mobile Security reported in a blog post that 10,000 people around the world have been tricked into downloading a scam app claiming that it can change the color of their Facebook profile page.

Once clicked, the fake app leads users to a phishing website, which asks them to watch a tutorial video about how to change the color of their profile page. By agreeing to watch the video, the users give hackers access to their profiles, letting the app spam their friends.

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