Trend Micro highly advised against clicking a Facebook link saying: "(BREAKING NEWS) Malaysia Plane Crash into Vietnam sea MH370 Malaysia Airlines is found!"

Clicking the link will take browsers to a bogus page with a ready to play video. The video will prompt the browsers to click on more links. More clickings will automatically share the bogus link to the users' Facebook account, to be viewed and lured the next victim.

"Sharing the video, of course, helps cybercriminals spread their malicious link to other users," Trend Micro said in a statement.

After sharing, a dialogue box will ask the browser to verify his age by completing a test which was nothing but another survey scam, Trend Micro added.

Trend Micro explained that cyber criminals take advantage of highly interesting news like the missing MH370 to obtain personal data from the falling victims.

"Given the heightened interest in the missing flight, it was only time (before) cybercriminals used it to their advantage," TrendLabs expert Paul Oliveria said in a statement.

Trend Micro added that scams like this was also used by cybercriminals during the Super Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines and the deadly bomb attack on the Boston Marathon.

Meanwhile, Websense had also warned against clicking Facebook links saying that the Malaysia Airlines MH370 had been found. These links will take browsers to lure Web sites appearing like a legitimate Facebook page.

"Should users browse to the lure website, they are presented with a series of dialogue boxes, which eventually lead to a Facebook popup supposedly referencing a Yahoo! News article," Websense wrote in its Web site.

Websense's warning came with a complete walkthrough on how the bogus web site works.

Other websites hosting the fake news include:

  • hxxp://cotmot.com/mh370plane/
  • hxxp://mh370malaysia31.droppages.com/
  • hxxp://insidevideo.net/

According to Websense, such scams were made to generate revenue through Cost Per Action.