Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2011/04/12/photo_lure_survey_scam/

Facebook photo-tagging trick used to lure emo kids to survey scam

Clickjack ruse targets melancholy Twihard teens

By John Leyden

Posted in Security, 12th April 2011 08:48 GMT

Facebook survey scammers, the hardest-working crooks in cybercrime, are exploiting Facebook's loosely-controlled photo-tagging technology to develop more attention-grabbing scam lures.

The starting point of the scam commonly appears with users finding themselves tagged in their online friends' photo albums.

Clicking to investigate further will lead to a link seemingly promoting a game based on the upcoming movie Twilight: Breaking Dawn. Other themes have also been seen, for example pictures of food sold at the Olive Garden restaurant chain, posted without permission of the eatery.

In reality, no Twilight game nor pictures are on offer. Would-be marks are simply encouraged to install a rogue application that earns scammers money by encouraging users to complete a worthless survey. Once granted permission, the rogue app messes around with a users' photo album and claims that the user "likes" the rogue app, among other things.

The rogue application uses clickjacking techniques to further its mischief, as explained in a blog post by Sophos here.

"Unfortunately, Facebook doesn't prevent third-party applications from tagging your friends' names onto photos on your wall – even if there are no people pictured in the photograph," explained a Sophos spokesman.

The attack follows an assault using an image of a Playboy-style bunny girl, again ultimately designed to promote a survey scam. ®