Survey scams exploit Winehouse's death, Oslo massacre
Crack-smoking and security-cam footage doesn't exist
Posted in Security, 25th July 2011 09:45 GMT
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Online scumbags wasted little time in latching onto the untimely death of singer Amy Winehouse as a lure for survey scams on Facebook.
Bogus messages supposedly offering footage of Winehouse smoking crack hours before her death of a suspected drug overdose on Saturday actually lead to pointless surveys that make money for scammers. Some of these surveys attempt to trick victims into signing up to expensive premium-rate SMS subscription services of dubious utility.
Fraudsters are quick to prey on tragedies or celebrity death as a theme for their scams. True to form, the Oslo bombing also became the theme of a survey scam on Friday. Marks were offered supposed footage of the blast from a security camera. In reality there is no footage and the whole ruse exists purely to waste victims' time on a useless survey that earns scammers affiliate revenue from unscrupulous marketing firms. ®
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