Now that MEGA has launched (albeit a little shakily), it hasn’t taken long to spot what may be the first scam trying to make some money off the back of the brand new file hosting service.
Click to Enlarge
“Hack! Search and download files from mega.co.nz for free”, the YouTube video claims (while linking no less than three times to the same adlf.ly link). As you would expect, the next thing the end-user would see is this:
Click to Enlarge
Clicking “Skip Ad” takes them to a rather bare looking blog which claims that they can “Search and download user files from the new MEGA website”.
Click to Enlarge
The full blurb reads as follows:
“We have found a way to search and download files from the new MEGA website and its (sic) for free. Click the link below and a dialog box will appear for you to search and download files”
Underneath, they provide two links: “Search” and “Search Help”. Observant individuals will notice both links are an identical Adfl.ly link. Clicking either will take them to another Adf.ly page (unsurprisingly enough), before depositing them on the genuine MEGA website frontpage.
Doing nothing, however, will eventually redirect the willing file hunter to – I know! – yet another Adf.ly page which eventually leads back to the blog to have another go at, er, clicking a Adf.ly link.
There’s a bit of a theme here, isn’t there?
Anybody caught up in this digital hall of mirrors will likely spend a long time looking at loading screens and buttons asking them to “Skip Ad” a lot. What they absolutely will not achieve is any sort of joy whatsoever where searching for uploaded files is concerned. The only person to benefit here is the one potentially making money from the daisy chain of clicked Adf.ly links via the spamblog.
All in all, not very mega.
Christopher Boyd
Leave a reply
