Scammers exploit NBA finals

As the end of the National Basketball Association (NBA) season approaches, security researchers are warning Facebook users about a spam campaign thriving off of mounting interest in the final games.

Satnam Narang, a security response manager at Symantec, said from Sunday a malicious campaign emerged consisting of messages falsely advertising free streaming videos of this week's live finals.

The spam also includes a link to a Tumblr page hosting the “live streams,” where users are instead asked to install a Facebook application called “NBAFinals.”

This app asks users to access their Facebook profile information, including their friends list and email address – and even posts messages on their timeline, further spreading the spam.

Scammers make money from the campaign by redirecting users from the Tumblr page to a plugin install page where affiliate advertisers track traffic.

According to Symantec, Tumblr has removed the pages used in the scams. The security firm also reported the campaign to Facebook.

This article originally appeared at scmagazineus.com