scams

SEATTLE--Facebook and the Washington state attorney general have filed separate suits against an alleged "likejacking" firm accused of tricking users into "liking" sites that then pay the likejacker for the click referrals.

Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna said this morning in a press conference at Facebook's Seattle office that he believes Adscend Media LLC--a self-described "performance-based marketing network"--has generated $20 million a year from the actions.

Neither the attorney general nor Facebook has contacted Adscend to discuss the allegations.

"They are big. They are pernicious," said Assistant Attorney General … Read more

Last May, long before the iPhone 4S was released, a bunch of Facebook users got tricked into spreading spam by clicking on a link attached to this headline: "First Exposure: Apple iPhone 5."

People who normally ignore all the other scams involving purported free software or naked celebrity photos clicked that fake news link and even completed a captcha on a second site, which reposted the scam to their own Facebook stream. That probably says more about how fanatical people are about Apple products than anything else. But it did raise the question--what does it take to lure … Read more

Last week we warned that people be aware of potential Christmas scams, especially those involving Apple's products as the company has become exceptionally popular in the past few years.

While the scam I mentioned in our previous warning was laughably fake, apparently a number of Apple customers have found a new e-mail scam circulating that gives the appearance of being quite genuine. The e-mail appears well-formatted with proper grammar, and is styled with shading and official-looking links, addresses, and copyright marks. The message also claims to come from an official looking e-mail address "appleid@id.apple.com."… Read more

Although a number of people are out looking for the latest deals on gadgets that Apple and others may offer, scammers are in no doubt interested in capitalizing on the increased interest in purchases and promotions.

E-mail scams and other attempts to coerce people into giving up personal information online is nothing new, however, scammers may make extra effort to use Apple's popularity.

Recently, MacFixIt reader Martin F. wrote in about a scam e-mail he received regarding an Apple promotion, which, while obvious to many people as a scam, might be enough for others to fall for it.

The … Read more

Lucky Supermarkets, a chain in California, has been hit hard with a credit card scam.

The company announced the scam in November, saying customers and employees who used the self-checkout kiosks in more than 20 of its 234 stores might have fallen victim to tampered credit card readers. The hackers reportedly used devices called "sniffers" that recorded credit card numbers.

Soon after the information was made public, Lucky Supermarkets, as well as its parent company, Save Mart Supermarkets, said it was unsure how many people might have been affected but urged customers to monitor their accounts.

"We … Read more

In addition to the usual online scams designed to defraud shoppers during the holiday season, several malls will be tracking people via their cell phones.

Beginning on Black Friday, Promenade Temecula, south of Los Angeles, and Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Va., will be monitoring signals from shoppers' cell phones, CNN reports.

Mall officials say they want to be able to see traffic patterns in the various stores. No personal data will be collected and the information will remain anonymous, they said. Shoppers are given notice by small signs around the malls.

"We won't be looking at … Read more

The federal organization overseeing administration of funds from the 2008 bailout has shut down 85 alleged online mortgage scams that advertised with Google to target struggling homeowners.

The agency, known as the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or SIGTARP, says that the alleged scammers preyed on homeowners seeking to lower their mortgages through a program created by the bailout. The program, known as the Home Affordable Modification Program, offers homeowners who are having difficulty paying their mortgages a way to alter their payments to ease the burden.

In a press release today (PDF), … Read more

One thing men learn quite quickly, even when they're little boys, is just how vulnerable they are.

They're supposed to be strong, but on so many emotional dimensions, they are mere putty. It's the desperation to live up to the hype, I fear.

Who can therefore be astonished that men fall for Facebook scams more than women?

According to CBS News.com, a study by antivirus software company, Bitdefender showed that when it comes to Facebook scams, men are something of a pushover.

Of those surveyed, 64.2 percent of the women rejected, ahem, Facebook friend requests … Read more

The latest malware scam that has been found for OS X is a fairly obscure installer program that is being disguised as an Adobe Flash Player installer. It was first discovered in late September.

This Trojan horse is a minimal threat. It works by installing a payload executable file on the system and then configures environmental variables on the system so that the payload will be launched when certain applications are opened. The payload then communicates with a remote server in an apparent attempt to steal personal information.

The initial version of the malware installed the payload in various locations … Read more