Malaysia Airlines crash: Facebook and Twitter scams exploit MH17 disaster

Scammers are using Malaysia Airlines plane crash in east Ukraine to spread objectionable links, online security experts have warned.

Links to different websites disguised as a video of the Malaysia Airlines crash were posted on a Facebook page dedicated to one victim.

Many tweets have been posted that appeared to report the disaster, but actually included spam links.

One expert said the social networks should take more responsibility for removing them.

A Facebook community page dedicated to Liam Sweeney, one of the 298 people victims, uses his name and picture.

Its sole post is a link entitled: “Video Camera Caught the moment plane MH17 Crash over Ukraine”.

Twitter’s rules state: “User abuse and technical abuse are not tolerated on Twitter.com, and may result in permanent suspension.

“Any accounts engaging in the activities specified below may be subject to permanent suspension: If you post multiple unrelated updates to a topic using #, trending or popular topic, or promoted trend.”

Many previous disasters had been exploited in a similar way and that it expected to see further exploitation of the MH17 crash.