The U.S. Council of Better Business Bureaus is warning consumers about online scams designed to get them to provide credit card and other personal information by offering free Apple Inc. iPads, which went on sale as of Saturday.
McAfee Inc., a Santa Clara, Calif.-based security technology company, reported to the Better Business Bureau that someone was sending spam e-mails offering free iPads to consumers if they first provided their credit card numbers, says Alison Southwick, a spokesperson for the Arlington, Va.-based council. McAfee has published a warning about the e-mail scam on its security blog, she says.
GeekSugar.com, a technology and celebrity Web site, similarly is warning of spam e-mails that encourage consumers to become iPad testers by logging on to the Web site Testitandkeepit.com. Operators of Testitandkeepit say they will give the iPad to participating consumers after they spend two months testing it. GeekSugar warned, however, participants must provide their e-mail addresses and their passwords as well their friends’ e-mail addresses to participate. PaymentsSource could not reach executives of Vancouver, British Columbia-based Testitandkeepit for comment.
Another scammer used Facebook to solicit victims. Executives of Sophos PLC, a United Kingdom-based software company, note in a Facebook video an unnamed company solicited potential iPad users with the enticing offer to test iPads in exchange for being able to keep them. The site, however, tricked consumers into signing up for a $10-per-month cell-phone service, Southwick says. Some 3,500 Facebook fans signed up as testers before Facebook removed the site.
The scams began weeks before Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple released its iPad for sale. An Apple spokesperson did not respond to an e-mail request for comment.
What do you think about this? Send us your feedback.
