Beware of Links Promising Photos of Dead bin Laden

Clicking on links that promise to show photos or video of a dead Osama bin Laden is a bad idea, cybersecurity experts warn. Spammers and scammers have moved even faster than usual to spread malicious links aimed at Facebook and Google users, reports the Los Angeles Times. "The bad guys were quite fast," a researcher at Kasperky Labs says. They "started to poison search results in Google Images" within hours.

One link that has spread widely on Facebook claims to lead to BBC video of bin Laden's death. The link takes users to a non-Facebook page that looks exactly like a Facebook one and asks for a verification code. If the code is entered, the link is posted to the user's Facebook wall. Security experts say people should look very closely before clicking on anything unusual, and recommend hovering your cursor over any questionable link to view the URL of the site and verify it's one you've heard of. Newser links on the topic (like this) will not lead to requests for your credit card info or other nastiness. (More Facebook stories.)