Claim: Links posted on Facebook point to a leaked video of a roller coaster accident.
Example:[Collected via e-mail, March 2012]
Is this for real? I was too scared to open it.
Origins: In March 2012, Facebook users begin seeing posts that typically featured a snapshot of a roller coaster accompanied by text referencing a theme park accident, such as:
Rollercoaster Accident in California!
Rollercoaster Accident in United Kingdom
ACCIDENT! - 89% Cant Watch It Rollercoaster Accident in Australia
OMG! Theme Park accident in Alton Towers United Kingdom
OMG! - Theme Park accident in Universal Studios Hollywood
HORRIFIC Roller Coaster Accident! In Universal Studios
HORRIFIC! - Summertime Theme Park Australia
These come-ons typically included titillating tag lines such as "This IS CRAZY has just been leaked!" and "Watch this horrific video now" to entice Facebook users to click on hyperlinks in expectation of viewing video footage of the putative horrible roller coaster accident.
Users who did click through on such links were taken to a faux Facebook page which eventually led them down the trail of the usual survey scam, directing them to "like" or "share" links with their Facebook friends and complete online surveys, all with the goal of getting them to enrich scammers by disclosing sensitive personal information, spreading malware, buying products, and signing up for costly, difficult-to-cancel services.
The photograph of a string of rollercoaster cars plunging into an amusement park lake is a still of an actual attraction at Cosmo Land in Yokohama, Japan. Preprogrammed jets of water shoot upwards from the pool just as the "Vanish" rollercoaster plunges riders into a subterranean tunnel.
