In the wake of Casey Anthony's acquittal last week, Facebook scammers have picked up the slack and turned the salacious story into a weapon to wreak havoc on your social networking profile.
The scam comes in the form of a video claiming to show Anthony confessing to her lawyer that she killed her two-year-old daughter, Caylee Marie Anthony, the crime for which she was found not guilty last Tuesday (July 5), according to researchers at the security firm Sophos.
The message includes a video still of Anthony, and reads, "Click To See — She can't be re-tried, double jeopardy [sic] … OJ all over again!"
Of course, in the aftermath of the trial, which held the country's attention since its start in May, there's a good chance unsuspecting Facebook users will be tempted to watch this video.
[Don't Watch This Video: Facebook Scam Hacks Accounts]
But as with nearly all such Facebook scams, there is no video, and taking the bait leads Facebook users to a Web page that attempts to trick them into filling out a survey, which generates money for the scammers and sends the fake video message to users' entire contacts list.
If you do fall for the trap, Sophos suggests you remove entries relating to the Anthony story from your news feed and make sure your profile does not have any unwanted "Likes" under the "Likes and interests" section."