By now we’ve all become waryof posts like this one on Facebook: “Costco is currently giving away $100.00 gift cards to all Facebook users!’
Alas, as of this writing, a bogus Costco gift card scam was live on Facebook.
We have no doubt that the social network’s immune system will detect the web address that the latest posts include and add the URLs to the security databases.
Just when you think Facebook has blocked every possible link to a particular scam meme, it returns with another web address. Southwest Airlines isn’t giving away 973 pairs of free tickets on the social network, and by now most people have learned that promises to that effect only lead to malware and spam.
So, you received an email saying that you won the Facebook lottery?
Well, you might want to cancel the vacation reservations and the new car, and find a way to delete that email to your boss, since the Facebook lottery doesn’t exist.
The Naked Security blog, from IT-security and data-protection company Sophos, warned of the latest Facebook scam, in which users receive emails alerting them about their “good fortune.”
It’s been a while since we’ve seen an outbreak of free voucher scams hit Facebook but in the last two days American and Canadian coffee lovers have been targeted by would-be phishers.
As our friends at Sophos explain, offers purporting to be from Tim Hortons started targeting Canadian users Monday. Users were asked to “Like” a page and share it with Facebook friends in exchange for free coffee.
Today, the scam has spread to include Starbucks. Tim Horton’s is primarily a Canadian chain and the ubiquity of Starbucks makes U.S. users potential targets.
Malicious hackers have targeted Google’s social networking service, Google+, for the first time in a scam that involves fake invites to the service, Naked Security reports.
The fake invites are spreading through email, and they look very similar to the actual invites to the service, down to the email address which seems to be coming from a Google+ member.
However, if you click on a link in the message – which we definitely do not recommend – you’ll land at a site trying to send you penis enlargement products.
Scams such as this one are very common with major product launches; most recently, we’ve seen a similar phishing scheme involving Google Music invites. Whenever you receive an “invite” to a service, especially from a third party, be extra careful before clicking any links and make sure that the invite is really coming from a legitimate source.
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