If a Facebook message starts with these four words, do not open it

Another social media scam is doing the rounds, and it’s an easy one to fall for.

The latest scam to target Facebook Messenger users is a phishing scam in which a fraudster will send a message with the words “look what I found” accompanied by a link.

As this message may come from a friend’s account, we might not think twice before clicking.

But when you click on the link, you’re prompted to enter your Facebook log-in details, or it may attempt to install malware on your device.

Another variation of the scam is when the dodgy link is accompanied by a message saying “is this you in this video?” or something similar.

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“Messages seemingly coming from a Facebook friend much more likely result in clicks than messages sent by strangers, because people might only or primarily focus on the sender’s name at first rather than the message content, regardless whether that has red flags,” cyber security expert Leslie Sikos told 7NEWS.

“There are many scams of this sort, meaning that there is no single appearance or behaviour users could learn to avoid.

They added: “Note that if someone is tricked by a message and they click a scam’s link, they still might not be victims in the end if they can realise it’s a scam by keeping an eye on the website loading process, which would reveal the redirection to a malicious website.”

Although such scams have no single appearance, there are certain things you can watch out for.

If a friend sends a message without their typical greeting, it could be a red flag. Bad grammar and speech that seems machine-generated are also things to look out for.

The message might also come in at a time when your friend should be asleep instead of sending links on Facebook!

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