Caution over Amy Winehouse scam

Facebook users have been warned over an internet scam involving videos claiming to show Amy Winehouse moments before her death.

Spam posts on the social networking site began to filter through just four hours after the death of Winehouse on Saturday, tricking users into thinking that leaked footage of the singer’s last moments had surfaced.
 
Users were fooled into clicking on posts titled, ‘SHOCKING- Amy Winehouse’s Final Minutes’ and ‘Video leaked of Amy Winehouse’s death!!!’ among others. Although the posts directed users to various online surveys, it is not uncommon for these schemes to evolve into money-making scams, according to ‘Get Safe Online’ Managing Director, Tony Neate.

Speaking to Yahoo! News, Mr Neate said, “Although currently this scam seems to be only for surveys, users need to be aware of this. Any bad news comes with additional dangers and we have seen this before with other tragedies over the years. As has happened with Amy Winehouse here, scammers have spotted the opportunity to make money from awful things happening”.

Similar schemes in the past have attempted to take money from victims through emails posing as pleas for donations.

“With the [Indian Ocean] tsunami several years ago we saw within an hour that criminals had set up a fake charitable email that had been sent round to pull on purse strings” said Mr Neate.

In particular, fans of Amy Winehouse have been warned that targeting through Facebook or any other means for donations should be treated with extreme caution.