SYDNEY Seth Jones Salute to Service Jersey , July 22 (Xinhua) -- Australians have woken, Tuesday morning to the troubling revelations that social media is being ruthlessly exploited by 'scammers' who have created false tribute websites via the popular Facebook application posing as families and friends of victims of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.
Tapping into the spontaneous and collective grief on display here since MH17 was lost over Ukraine, Thursday, Australia's consumer watchdog, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), issued an alert, Monday night that criminals trying to cash in on the MH17 tragedy -- referred to as 'scammers' -- have been setting up fake Facebook pages of various disguises designed solely to exploit unwary samaritans.
The reprehensible scams are a troubling reminder of the unregulated dangers of social media with criminals preying not only on the most vulnerable, but also by turning the nation's generous impulses against themselves.
Among the most common traps on Facebook, are pages that instantly direct people to a 'blog' claiming to provide updates and information on the scattered progress on the situation of flight MH17.
However, when the page redirects to a series of unconnected pop- up advertisements that include advertisements, sometimes graphic, for companies offering gambling and pornography.
According to the ACCC the scammers earn money with each visitor and each 'click' with the pop-up advertisement itself gleaming cash for each, single deception.
Perhaps most troubling for Australia, which lost 39 citizens and residents when MH flight 17 crashed in Eastern Ukraine on Thursday, is the revelation that the Facebook pages refer to victims by name, and the highest profile victims in this country have been the Maslin family, mentioned overnight by Foreign minister Julie Bishop in her'Explanation of Vote' to the UN Security Council for the adoption of Resolution 2166 in New York.
Grandfather Nick Norris was on holiday with his three grandchildren, Mo, 12, Evie, 10 and Otis Maslin, 8, of Western Australia. All lost on MH17.
Ms Bishop told the UN: "Yesterday I spoke to a husband and wife from Perth who had been on a family holiday in Europe. They had decided to stay on for only a couple of days, while their three children -- aged 12, 10 and 8 -- had to return to school in Australia, so they went on ahead with their grandfather on flight MH17. The parents are inconsolable in their grief."
The story of the Maslin's has been the focus of an outpouring of grief here and the social media scammers have taken full advantage setting up several sites disguised as portals for tributes, donations and other internet 'honey-traps.'
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) runs the SCAMwatch website, and is urging people to only use reliable news sources and to be particularly wary of links posted on social networking sites.
By Tuesday, more than 11 readily identifiable 'fraudulent accounts' were active across Facebook. Facebook's public representative was uncontactable, Tuesday, however reports that the pages have since been closed down are inconclusive as the speed of the scam has intensified.
Some of the pages offer a link to a video claiming to have footage of the MH17 crash, with one lead or "click-bait" as it is termed in internet security - saying --- 'Video Camera Caught the moment plane MH17 Crash over Ukraine. Watch here the video of Crash.'
Speaking to Fairfax Media, Alastair MacGibbon, the director of the University of Canberra's (UC) Center for Internet Safety, said that fake Facebook pages can be lucrative for criminals after an international disaster that plays on people's emotions.
"Crooks are super-fast these days at picking up on anything that's remotely topical, and working out how to monetize it from a criminal point of view.. It's a really distasteful trend."
In the wake of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 last March, which disappeared -- purportedly -- somewhere over the Southern Ocean, West of Perth, the ACCC's SCAMWatch website warned users of a 'malware attack' when following links to watch videos related to the search for MH370.
It was widely reported Monday that the Australian government was looking at ways to declare the downing of MH17 a 'terrorist attack,' unlocking federal funding for victim compensation.
According to legislation enacted after the World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001 in New York Australian families of victims lost to terror attacks become eligible to receive 75,000 Australian dollars (about 70,000 U.S. dollars) per victim.
With public attention turning to compensation, Australians are at their most vulnerable to internet scams that exploit the collective sentiment.
Social media uptake here has been strong, making scams lucrative.
According to SocialMediaNews.au, a media monitoring and reporting site which provides monthly reports showing the most popular social networks in Australia, there were 13,000,000 Australian users -- a national uptake of more than 50 percent.
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