As fans boys, techies and the rest of the world mourned the death of the late Apple co-founder, chairman and former chief executive officer Steve Jobs last Wednesday, cybercriminals successfully tricked innocent people from various countries using a Facebook fan page called “R.I.P. Steve Jobs.”
PandaLabs, a malware analysis and detection laboratory for Panda Security, in a blog post reported that the page was liked by at least 90,000 fans just a few hours after it was created.
According to PandaLabs, the criminals “published a link using the popular shortener service bit.ly, where they said that Apple will be giving away 50 iPads.” Once the link is clicked, victims were redirected to a site offering “gifts” such as iPads and Sony Bravia TVs.
The site then asked for personal information such as Full Name, Address, Phone Number, e-mail address, among others. Of course, people get nothing at the end of the process.
Out of the 90K fans, PandaLabs said, 25,669 have fallen victim; 355 of them are Filipinos. Here's the breakdown:
Although personal information may be used for identity theft, scams usually start when the criminal sends messages by email or by phone asking the victim for funds in exchange for a shipment/delivery of an item that's supposedly given free of charge.
A swindle by means of a trick is easily detected. When something that's too good to be true is offered...beware.
PandaLabs, a malware analysis and detection laboratory for Panda Security, in a blog post reported that the page was liked by at least 90,000 fans just a few hours after it was created.
According to PandaLabs, the criminals “published a link using the popular shortener service bit.ly, where they said that Apple will be giving away 50 iPads.” Once the link is clicked, victims were redirected to a site offering “gifts” such as iPads and Sony Bravia TVs.
The site then asked for personal information such as Full Name, Address, Phone Number, e-mail address, among others. Of course, people get nothing at the end of the process.
Out of the 90K fans, PandaLabs said, 25,669 have fallen victim; 355 of them are Filipinos. Here's the breakdown:
- United States (9,274)
- Denmark (1,441)
- Germany (1,173)
- United Kingdom (719)
- Australia (683)
- Italy (674)
- Austria (583)
- Belgium (517)
- Sweden (463)
- Canada (446)
- France (429)
- India (398)
- Philippines (355)
- Norway (307)
- Croatia (305)
- Switzerland (272)
- Malaysia (247)
- Mexico (236)
Although personal information may be used for identity theft, scams usually start when the criminal sends messages by email or by phone asking the victim for funds in exchange for a shipment/delivery of an item that's supposedly given free of charge.
A swindle by means of a trick is easily detected. When something that's too good to be true is offered...beware.