As of Tuesday evening, before the U.S. government had released any photos of the slain Osama bin Laden, scam artists reportedly have been posting bogus photos in hopes of ripping people off, including via Facebook and Google.
Stories in the Los Angeles Times and DiscoveryNews online say crooks are posting bogus, doctored photos and videos that claim to show bin Laden’s wounded head. Their goal: to trick news-hungry readers to click on links that could introduce malicious software into their hard drives.
One bad link ends up telling google customers their computers have been infected with viruses. Thus, the scammers claim, the customers should download more antivirus software, which could be a virus itself, according to the Los Angeles Times.
It’s a new thing, but the old rule still applies: Don’t click on a link on an unsolicited e-mail, website or other offerings that could be placed there by scammers and take you where you don’t want to go.
