How to PROTECT yourself from Bait-and-Switch scam?

7-Minute 11 Second Viral Video: Following the “19-minute 34-second video” and “7-minute 11 Second Viral video” trends, an alleged MMS leak has become a topic of conversation on the internet, especially on Instagram. The new viral video leak is said to be “12:46 minutes” (12 min 46 sec video) and “9 minutes 44 seconds”, and it is just a part of the whole plot featuring a woman whose mouth is filled with a cloth. Several Instagram accounts have posted the alleged MMS video screenshot in their Insta stories, inviting users to comment a particular word to get the download link. Is the “12:46 minutes” or “9 minutes 44 seconds” viral video real, or is it a dangerous scam?

Is the 12-minute 46-second viral video real?

Scamsters are steadily taking advantage of the hyper-specific viral search terms like the “19-minute 34-second” and “12:46 minutes” video, which is a very clever way of performing a bait-and-switch cyberattack. They are releasing posts on social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Telegram, and Instagram with the offer of “original links” to the specific timestamps. This way, they can draw in the public’s interest and the “Fear Of Missing Out” (FOMO), which is a great temptation regarding rumoured leaked or contentious content.

How to protect yourself from bait-and-switch scams?

Viral video bait-and-switch scams are a thing, but you can protect yourself from them if you take the right steps, stay alert, and know that these trends always come up with such a huge hype that one cannot help but feel the “fear of missing out.” The first step in spotting these baits is checking the link’s source carefully because the actual good news or the viral content will usually be stored on big, well-known platforms with a lot of traffic, rather than on scary and weird domain names with extensions like .xyz, .top, or .click.

During your online activities, the “hover before you click” strategy should always be applied, where you put your cursor over a link to check the real destination URL first; this often shows a malicious or unrelated web address that is the opposite of what the post is claiming. One more thing to watch out for is if a site demands you to do something to “unlock” the video, e.g. downloading a certain media player, updating a browser extension, or filling in a “human verification” survey, as these are all old methods of malware distribution or personal data capturing.