Facebook users rent out their accounts, get money and free laptops
It is no secret that many topics are prohibited to advertise in social networks. One of them - all sorts of casinos and gambling. But if you cannot use the social network advertising network, then you can try to advertise your products directly - with the help of other users' accounts.
In addition, these same accounts can be used to launch an advertising campaign of a prohibited product. Even if the moderators quickly close the campaign, the advertiser will receive a certain portion of clients. And then you can start working with a new account - and so on: a ban - a new account - a ban ... Online casino owners not only create fake accounts, but also rent real users' accounts.
A new trend was noticed by information security specialists from Novetta. All this is not a fake, as it may seem. Advertisers really take other people's social network accounts for rent, offering up to $ 500 a month, and sometimes provide a free laptop.
Software on a laptop is not only the default - there is a special software that allows the advertiser to launch an advertising campaign through a rental account.
Offers are not sent directly, there is a whole network of sites that describe the scheme of working with rental accounts, offering a reward. Among such resources are fbcash.net, fbrenters.com, fbdollars.com and rentusyourfbook.com.
FAQ on the resources is not bad. In particular, the creators of the new scheme say that they do not get access to the user account, but rent an account, which works when creating an advertising campaign, Facebook ad account. At the same time, advertisers cannot register bots, since under the Facebook terms, to open an advertising campaign, an account must be active for at least a year, and the account holder’s activity must be explicit.
The study showed that hundreds of people took advantage of the offer. And they really get laptops and money. Cybersecurity experts warn that “renting an account” means giving unknown individuals full access to their account or even a working machine. And this threatens not only with account blocking, but also identity theft.
Users who agree to the terms of the authors of the "project" must fill out a special form and wait. If the application is approved, then the next step is to install a special browser plug-in or provide “marketers” with remote access to your PC so that they can set up an advertising campaign.
In some cases, TeamViewer is used with full access to the resources of the user's PC. It is clear that the result of such work can be not only setting up an advertising campaign, but also identity theft, installing malicious software and performing any other actions. The browser plugin is designed in such a way that it continues to work in the background and after the browser itself is closed.
The scheme described above is not new. For example, in 2015, the site rentyouraccount.com was launched, which offered to install Raspberry Pi, sent by the creators of the resource. “Malinka” needed to be connected to its router. The goal is to control the Facebook user who agreed to collaborate. Of course, this is a stated goal, little is known about the real intentions of the authors of the proposal.
One of the users who received the “raspberry” connected it and analyzed the activity of the device. As it turned out, it was really used to set up a Facebook account, but besides this, the router was connected to a botnet. This scheme, as far as can be judged by the messages on Reddit , is still alive.
The developers of the “Facebook rental” system have also introduced a new feature - referral links for existing users of the system. Who will be able to bring newcomers who will rent their accounts for rent, receive money. And Facebook is not limited; there are offers on YouTube, Twitter and other social networks and services.