Trend Micro has found hundreds of websites emerging on the internet, claiming to stream the latest Box Office movie, Iron Man 3. Once visited, these sites required users to download a video installer that would not play the aforementioned film, but may instead leave those affected vulnerable to malware. Furthermore, social media platforms like Facebook and many well-known blogs also allowed scammers to further spread “Free Iron Man 3 Streaming Video” websites to draw users into taking surveys that generated financial gain for the said scammers.

This was noticed even before the official release of the film in US. Most of the sites used popular blog providers e.g. Tumblr etc to lead users to the disguised Iron Man 3 streaming or download pages. Based on TrendLabs’ analysis, the video player downloaded is said to be “a legitimate video player.” However, this particular video player has been known to display aggressive ads in the past, and these legitimate files could easily be replaced with malware at a later time. Thus, it won’t be a complete surprise to find a malware-hosted Iron Man 3 streaming and download webpage anytime soon.

Some scammers also use Facebook to share their streaming links. But once users click the link, they are redirected to several web pages with survey scams, and their Facebook contacts spammed with the same post. Similar ruses TrendLabs documented in the past include the “Facebook Profile Viewer” and a survey scam under the veil of the much talked-about Google Glass competition.

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