A viral post on Facebook claiming to have a video with the title “A Giant Snake Swallows Up a Zookeeper” is just an online survey scam.
The post shows what appears to be large, anaconda-like snake with its mouth open next to a man standing listlessly in front of it. “Heart breaking video footage behind the scene!!” it reads.
There’s not actually a video of the snake eating the man.
When one clicks on the post, it redirects the user to a fake Facebook-looking site--complete with fake, grammatically incorrect Facebook comments--that asks one to “like” or share the post. By doing this, it shares the video even more.
It’s not recommended to click on the link.
“The way in which scams like this make money is that they typically ask you to take online surveys, which earn them small amounts of affiliate cash. Clearly if they manage to trick *many* Facebook users into sharing the link, and use a sensational video as bait, they’re going to get a lot more people clicking on the link,” writes security expert Graham Cluley on his website.
Other fake viral video postings include one about a “Huge Plane” hitting a bridge, a shark eating a man in the ocean, and video footage purporting to show the death of the singer Rihanna. Like the “Giant Snake Swallows Up a Zookeeper,” there’s no video and it just sends users to a false website with fake online surveys that generate affiliate money for the creators.
Friends Read Free