Scammers often post links on Facebook, using fake images and titles such as: “Girl kills herself after dad yelling at her”, or “You won’t believe what this guy did after his girl dumped him”.

Once open, the links are automatically posted on your wall so all your friends believe you recommend the reading. Once you click on the link not only you will be recorded as “you liked” the post, but a pop-up will also require your personal information in order to go further.

From here, there are several ways you become a victim, most likely after you type in your cell phone number for an imaginary promotion and automatically get registered for Premium texting, which means you will receive periodical texts for which you have to pay $2/ piece until you opt out.

How to avoid: if you enjoy reading this sort of sensational news, do it on CNN’s or BBC’s website. You should know by now how a shady link looks like.