Scam: ‘This Gymnast Broke Her Gymnastics Leotards / Dress in Competition in France’ is Totally Fake

Scam: ‘This Gymnast Broke Her Gymnastics Leotards / Dress in Competition in France’ is Totally Fake
Jack Phillips
8/6/2014
Updated:
7/18/2015

A viral post on Facebook, which is titled “This Gymnast Broke Her Gymnastics Leotards in Competition in France,” is nothing more than a scam. Another one says, “This gymnast broke her dress in the act.”

The scam tries to get people to click on the post, which shows a crude image of a female gymnast, by implying there’s a video of the incident.

When users click on the post, they’re taken to another website, which then says the users have to share it first before going any further.

The whole post reads: “[VIDEO] This gymnast broke her gymnastics leotards in a competition in France! She must be crazy to do this!”

“Clicking the fake shared ‘You need to verify to view this video’ dialog box will only ask you to like, share the same page or complete surveys in order to verify your age. But, it is the fake Facebook web page that the scammers want you to ‘like’ or share, which will make it popular. Once the page is popular, these scammers can sell it to online marketers or other scammers. They will also make money from the surveys that are completed by gullible Facebook users who were tricked into completing them,” reads a post from Online Threat Alerts.

Another variant of the scam may prompt the downloading of malicious software.

The scams are intended to make money for the cybercriminals behind them. They often have bogus surveys for users to fill out, which also generate revenue.

 

Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
twitter
Related Topics