Pictures of young actress Miley Cyrus are again being used as lure by Face book scammers to trick users into spamming their friends and completing deceptive surveys. Ever since risqué photos of her were leaked onto the Internet at the age of fifteen, Miley Cyrus’s name has been regularly used in scams.
The recently turned 18 actresses and singer didn’t make things all that hard either with all the controversial situations she constantly placed herself in. The latest one involved being photographed while smoking salvia from a bong a few days after her eighteenth birthday.
According to Face crooks, the latest spam messages circulating around Face book read: “SICK! I lost all my respect for MILEY CYRUS after watching these shocking pictures! ===> [link]”
The link takes users to a rogue app called “Miley did a sad mistake” which requests permission to post on their walls and access their profile information. The only purpose of this app is to send spam messages from victims’ accounts in order to propagate the scam.
And of course, people who misguidedly install the app don’t get to see any picture of Miley Cyrus. Instead, they are asked to complete a survey, allegedly as a security check. In addition to earning money for scammers through affiliate marketing schemes, these so called surveys attempt to subscribe people to premium rate services billed to their mobile phones.
People who fell victim to this scam should go to Account > Privacy Settings > Applications and Websites and revoke the permissions of any apps they don’t recognize or need.
Affected users should also remove the spam messages posted by the app on their walls in order to protect their friends and family members. Also, people who provided their phone number during one of these surveys should contact their mobile operator immediately and request the blocking of any additional charges.