By Primrose Riordan
As Sydneysiders rush to make genuine memorial Facebook pages, some social media users appear to be engaged in something more sinister - using Sydney siege victims' images and names to profit from internet advertising or "click-fraud".
At least one page, created late last night, uses the name of hostage survivor Elly Chen, whose dramatic escape from the cafe attracted global attention, to link users to a blog site, 'recentvideos', after redirecting them through online ad sites.
A Facebook page using the name of siege survivor Elly Chen which an expert says is likely 'click fraud'.Credit: Facebook
The page has taken a photo from Ms Chen's Facebook page and advertises two links both titled "VIDEO !!! Watch here The Video when Elly Chen escaped from the Lindt Chocolate Cafe".
Director of the University of Canberra's Centre for Internet Safety, Nigel Phair, said the site appeared to be set up by online advertisers to either gain details from users computers when they clicked on the link, or profit when directing users to other ads.
"So it is people just trying to profiteer from what is ... quite a sad case," Mr Phair said.
He said while it would be difficult to find out who actually set up the Facebook page, clicking on the links could lead users to unsavoury sites or compromise user's privacy.
"It could be anything from downloading a keystroke logger or it could get you to click on other links, they could be gambling related, they could be adult content related" Mr Phair said.
Keystroke loggers are programs which record every key typed on a computer, and then send back the information to the person who installed it, sometimes used by advertisers or scammers.
Mr Phair said "at its worst" keystroke loggers could record online banking details.
"It depends, it could be nothing or
So far over 500 people have 'liked' the page.
"They rely on all those people putting comments up to legitimise it as being a bona fide thing to look at," Mr Phair said.
Click-fraud schemes are now common in the wake of major events or disasters, and were set up in the wake of the MH17 tragedy using names of victims.
By noon on Tuesday at least nine Facebook pages had been set up to remember Sydney siege victims Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson, one of which nearly has 2,500 'likes'.