Non-profit organization Cyber Security Philippines – CERT has issued a warning about social media accounts lurking online exploiting the calamity caused by Severe Tropical Storm Kristine for clicks and profit.
A tactic known as “social media poisoning,” in which an account broadcasts fictitious information about weather disruptions, was brought to light by the nonprofit organization.
The picture that goes with the post leads to a link that has nothing to do with the subject matter.
In a post they made through their Facebook page, they advised everyone that if they see an “i” icon on what looks like a group of pictures related to the recent calamity or trending news, do not click it as it is a redirect indicator.
Targets of the said strategy are “worried family members, relatives, friends, loved ones, and Bicolanos” who are “seeking news, pictures or any information about the recent floods in Bicol region.”
The non-profit organization reminded everyone to “be cautious with pages, post and content creators exploiting the recent calamity for clicks, traffic, and profit” as they are “expecting this activity to evolve and be utilized for malicious link redirection.”
Social media users took to the comments section upon seeing the post to express their thoughts about the social media poisoning that has been going on.
One user wrote, “Linking Shopee links to memes is cringe enough, but using a DISASTER to fool and lead people to buy Shopee merchandise is just disrespectful.”
“Meta always has a way to give a free pass to some of the most heinous things. From disinformation to unethical advertisements,” a second user wrote.
A third user wrote, “Daming ganyan here sa Facebook, sana alisin yang feature na yan [There are a lot of that here in Facebook, I hope that feature will be removed].”
More social media users have shared their frustration with this kind of posting.
Let this be a reminder to be cautious about the social media posts one may come across online so as to avoid being taken to unnecessary links they include.
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