A fake message circulating on Facebook is trying to trick users and redirect them to online investigation websites, informing them that singer Chris Brown was shot by police for not complying with their request to stop his car.
To make the fake news more enticing, the scammers even claim that the artist was carrying a 50-kg (110-pound) package of drugs and that was the reason the car did not stop.
As is always the case with online scams, a video frame is provided to entice potential victims to click on the link leading to the research website.
Before offering access to the supposed video, the victim is asked to share the message, a mistake that many users seem to make, despite the inherent risk of this act. This only helps the scammers spread their scam to more potential victims.
The website hosting the scam has been reported by Online Threat Alerts as chochachi com/chris/1222[.]; it appears to be frequently used for this type of activity on other scammy sites as well.
It currently redirects to a scam showing the execution of Steven Sotloff by ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) the Sunni jihadist group, to a graphical address that attempts to impersonate YouTube. It appears that this scam is not yet active, as there is no online research available for it.
