The world is mourning the death of Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, and scammers are wasting no time in taking advantage of the bad news.
As always, the death of celebrity figures brings scammers out of the woodwork. Within hours of Jobs’ death, scammers started taking advantage of Facebook users. One scam reads: “In memory of Steve, a company is giving out 50 iPads tonight. R.I.P. Steve Jobs” and is followed by a link.
No free iPads are being given out. The link actually takes users to a page to complete online surveys. The link went through the bit.ly URL shortening service and the company has since shut it down, but not before thousands of people clicked on it.
In cases like this, the scammer's goal is to drive traffic to certain websites, which is how the scammer earns his or her money: a commission for every survey completed, every product purchased, and/or every account compromised.
These links are also used to spread malware and obtain personal information.
Contact Facebook Security if you see something questionable. For more consumer tips go to wynco.bbb.org.