The case of the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 has had a profound impact on the psyche of humans as the bizarre mystery of an aircraft going missing remains unsolved for months, at a time when countries can detect bombs from far-off places.
But the tragic disappearance of the plane, along with the 239 people onboard, has also been a breeding ground for hoaxes to coax internet traffic, to visit their pages by publishing false news about the flight, simply because the subject generates massive human interest from across the world.
Readers are now being warned about a survey scam that seems to prey into the interest of people.
The scam, which is titled 'Malaysian Air Flight MH-370 Found By Sailor', has been tricking many Facebook users to click on the link provided. The post is masked as a 'news' article from a convincing-looking news website, and uses an image of an aircraft submerged in waters. The message features a teaser image of the submerged aircraft, which is presented as a clickable video.
In fact, the image used is that of US Airways Flight 1549 that crashed in Hudson River in January 2009. The photo seems to have been taken from legitimate news publications.
Facebook users, intrigued by the news, click the link that comes with what appears to be a video but victims are instead redirected to a fake Facebook page that supposedly contains the video. A pop-up message will appear, when one tries to play the video, saying one must first share the page to your Facebook friends.
"But, even if you did share as instructed, you would still not get to see the video. After sharing, you will be told that you must complete a survey as a means of verifying your age," Hoax Slayer reported.
The website further explains that no matter how many surveys the victims complete, they will never be able to see the video as there is none there in the first place.
