Casey Anthony Facebook Scam Preys on Social-Media Users

Orlando Sentinel ^ | July 12, 2011 | Walter Pacheco

[nickcarraway]

The Casey Anthony trial and not guilty verdict lit up Facebook, offering users updates and armchair analysis — but it also opened the door to scammers craving to cash in on people's curiosity.

One of the most popular scams masquerades as a Facebook post urging the social media site's nearly 700 million users to click on a link that plays a secret video confession by Casey Anthony, the 25-year-old acquitted July 5 in the first-degree murder of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee Marie.

Scam post message reads: "BREAKING NEWS – Leaked video of CASEY ANTHONY confessing to lawyers. Click To See – She can't be re-tried, double jeopardy[sic]…OJ all over again!"

There is no video. There is no secret confession. However, scammers gain access to users' Facebook walls, personal information, and share the viral scam using the unquestioned loyalty of their social media friends.

AllFacebook.com, a site which tracks trends, analytics and news about Facebook, shows that within minutes of the not guilty verdict, users posted 10 comments every second. Given that frenetic activity on the site, it's no wonder scammers targeted it.

Get behind the scenes of the Casey Trial. Join our discussion with Sentinel reporters this Friday.

"It makes sense that people are taking advantage given the huge interest in the Casey Anthony trial," said Josh Benton, director of the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. "The mechanism of sharing information can be taken advantage of and it's a nefarious practice."

Here's how the scam baits users:

•Facebook users click on the link which takes them to a site where they confirm their age.

•The scammer then posts a copy of the link to a user's wall, shares it with everyone on their list of friends, and spreads the scam.

[MacMattico]

The scammers will get more time than Casey Anthony did.