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iPad scammers pwn Lady Gaga's Facebook page

We're plastic but we'll still have fun...

Fraudsters have hit gold after they managed to successfully plant an iPad-themed scam on the Facebook fan page of Lady Gaga.

The page has 45 million fans, so only a minute percentage need to click for scammers to tap into an Xmas-themed windfall. The bogus messages claim the pop-star is running an iPad competition on the back of some sort of marketing deal with Apple.

Fans are invited to sign up to the competition for a chance to win a supposed "Lady Gaga Edition iPad".

"The webpage users were directed to was hosted on the free blogspot service, and has since been removed. Anyone who clicked on the link, and filled in online forms, may have unwittingly handed their personal information to scammers and potentially helped them earn revenue by completing online surveys," net security firm Sophos reports.

The scam message was pulled an hour after it first appeared, limiting the potential for damage. Even so records show that more than 120,000 people clicked on the offending link.

The Facebook pages of the bands Maroon 5 and Blink 182 were also reported as having been hit by similar scams.

Survey scams have been endemic on Facebook for months. Marks are invited to fill in worthless surveys, earning scammers a commission in the process, in exchange for the supposed opportunity to participate in prize draws. In many cases marks are induced to sign up for premium rate SMS services of dubious utility. ®

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