Following Angelina Jolie’s filing for divorce, an article falsified to look like it was published by Fox News has started making the rounds on Facebook with the extremely clickable headline “R.I.P Brad Pitt.”
Fortunately, Pitt is not dead. The post is merely a hoax that has been created by a savvy hacker to trick vulnerable users into handing over their email address, password and other personal details.
Clicking the headline redirects users to an application riddled with malware.
They are requested to fill in their Facebook credentials to read the story. However, instead of signing them in, the app grants itself access to their profile and instantly scans their devices for personal information to relay to the hacker.
“This malware isn’t new and is known to come from malicious browser extensions,” a Facebook spokesperson told CNNMoney. “Facebook [notifies] people when we detect malware on their computer, and we help them clean it up.”
If you’ve already fallen victim to the phishing attempt, we’d advise you to head over to Facebook and change your password immediately. If you use the same credentials for multiple different services, it would be wise to change them too.
Facebook is also recommending that you run its malware scanner to determine if your device has been compromised.
Lost access to your account? Simply contact Facebook to explain the issue and it’ll do its best to verify your identity and regain access to your account. Just remember, there’s no reason to panic. It’s happened before and it will inevitably happen again.
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