Hungry for a few dozen hamburgers?
Your stomach will continue to rumble, plus your blood pressure will likely go up, if you click on a Facebook survey scam offering “Free $100 McDonald’s Gift Card”.
Hoax-Slayer is reporting that the post promises the meaty $100 payoff to those who click on a link in the rogue Facebook scam post.
As go the typical Facebook scams, so too goes this one: users who fall for it and click on the link will be tricked into installing a rogue Facebook application, Hoax-Slayer reports.
That app then spams out further fake promotions via the victim’s Facebook account.
The scam tells victims that they have to install this app before receiving the free gift card.
But even after installing the app, the hamburger-hungry still won’t get their payoff.
Instead, they’ll be forced to first participate in more offers or online surveys, some of which press users for personal information such as name, address and contact details.
Other offers invite targets to download fishy toolbars, games or software.
Worse still, some claim that to get their prize, users must provide their mobile phone number, resulting in an unwitting subscription to insanely expensive text messaging services.
And regardless of the hoops victims jump through, they will never get the $100 fast-food bonanza.
As Hoax-Slayer reminds us, scammers make money this way by earning commissions via “suspect affiliate marketing schemes” every time an unsuspecting user completes an offer or participates in a survey.
Then again, victims may also get hit with large phone bills for mobile phone services they never wanted.
And because they’ve handed over their names and contact details, victims also may be swamped with unwanted promotional emails, phone calls and junk mail.
If you believe reports such as this one from the Social Science Research Network, the more we use Facebook, the worse our impulse control and the more apt we are to be obese.
So tell your Facebook-using friends to be on the lookout for scams like this, which, apparently, prey on us when we’re at our most peckish.
Stay informed about the latest security and privacy issues related to Facebook. Join the Naked Security page on Facebook, where nearly 200,000 people regularly share information on threats and discuss the latest security news.
Leave a reply
