DATA DOCTORS

Why celebrities are dangerous

Aug 25, 2014, 12:00 PM | Updated: 10:09 pm

Social media and the Internet allow us to keep tabs on our favorite celebrities but doing so can actually be dangerous.

Hackers are both evil and psychological in their methods and they know how to take advantage of our celebrity obsessed culture.

They routinely create online scams designed to allow them to sneak into your computer using celebrities as bait.

The most recent example is the fake post circulating on Facebook claiming to be a goodbye video from Robin Williams.

In most cases, if you click on the link, you’ll be told that you need to update your video player in order to watch the video.

If you fall for this, you essentially just granted remote access and control of your computer to a remote hacker.

Whenever you see a site telling you that you need to update your media player, that’s a huge red flag.

Why would you suddenly need something special when you view online videos almost every day. The answer is you don’t.

Celebrity based scams have long been one of the most effective tricks in the hacker’s playbook, so don’t let your guard down!

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Why celebrities are dangerous