A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 737-800 aircraft parks on tarmac of Kuala Lumpur International Airport outside Kuala Lumpur June 14, 2014.
A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 737-800 aircraft parks on tarmac of Kuala Lumpur International Airport outside Kuala Lumpur June 14, 2014. REUTERS/Samsul Said (MALAYSIA - Tags: DISASTER TRANSPORT) REUTERS/Samsul Said

Readers are being warned against a survey scam that preys on people's interest behind the mystery surrounding the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.

The survey scam comes in a video titled: Malaysian Air Flight MH-370 Found By Sailor; with the subtitle Mystery is solved - Sailor Rewarded $5 Million on spot.

The scam is masked as 'news' article that uses an image of an aircraft submerged in water. The image used is actually a photo of the US Airways Flight 1549 that crashed in Hudson River in January 2009. The photo was evidently filched from legit news articles.

Once a victim click on the link that comes with the video, the victim will be routed to a bogus Facebook account. An instruction saying that the page must be shared first to Facebook friends in order to watch the video will pop-up.

"But, even if you did share as instructed, you would still not get to see the video. After sharing, you will be told that you must complete a survey as a means of verifying your age. Alas, no matter how many surveys you complete, you will never get to see the promised video, which never existed to begin with," the team behind Hoax-slayer.com said.

Such scams are crooked affiliate marketing schemes aimed at generating money from the amounts of shares their Facebook pages amassed. The more people become victims and the more people share the video scam, the more their Facebook pages are being shared.

At worst, such survey scams may ask victims to give their mobile phone numbers and other personal information including names, addresses and important contact details. These usually resulted to a victim shocked that they had 'subscribed' to an expensive messaging service and end up with hefty phone bills. Victims may also receive pestering promotional emails, phone calls from marketers and spam mails.

Survey scams usually come under the guise of 'latest video', 'shocking video' or 'breaking news'; either with capitalised or bold headlines and with numerous exclamation points. They also hide behind controversial topics and ride-along trending news.

Official news and legit updates regarding the missing MH370 shall come from search authorities tasked at finding the airplane such as the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB).