Twitter: iTunes Gift Card Scam Moves From Facebook to Twitter

By Cesar Ortiz

A variant of the familiar Facebook Free iTunes Gift card scam that we covered in this Blog on July 6, 2011 is back, but now is spreading virally in Twitter. The scam begins when users receive messages from their friends with enticing text that offer free iTunes Gift Cards. The message from the unsuspecting, already a victim, friend, read like the samples below:

(Beginning of quote)

“i have got,get yrs free iTunes Gift Card giveaway today [LINK]

wow,iTunes Gift Card got just today free lol [LINK]

awesome lol,today got iTunes Gift Card [LINK]

Your Chance to choose Your Best iTunes Gift Card [LINK]

Find out how to get a iTunes Gift Card! [LINK]”

(End of quote)

Unsuspecting users who click on the friend’s message about the “Free iTunes Gift Card” will trigger the scam hidden script immediately. According to security researchers, all of the scams will show a profile of a pretty female photo, at times wearing very few clothes or a bikini. The very professional looking window will tempt users to follow the lady, sometimes called Milda Fountaine or Lucy Adams with interesting feeds of tweets like quotes of the day, but inserted in the feeds is one that says:

 “[Blue letters link] Milda Fountaine2-Milda Fountaine awsome lol  today got iTunes Gift Card

www.arks.in/ogtd

xx minutes ago"

Users who click on the blue link before the Milda name in the hope of receiving a Free iTunes card will immediately send the same message that they just received to all their friends, therefore propagating the scam. After clicking the blue link, users will receive an enticing advertising or form related to the user location country and city. It could be an offer for a Friends Club, Dating Club or any male oriented  “pay per filled form” site that unsuspicious or shady merchants contract the scammers for. If you clicked on to “Follow” Milda Fountaine, you have given permission to the scammers to play and even hack your Twitter account. Another option is to invade you and your friends with scam offers. Please beware that a malware (virus, password, credit data hacks) link can be inserted anywhere in the scam, therefore creating a more serious problem. There is no iTunes Free Card anywhere.

To remove this hack from your Twitter account, (1) Go to the Twitter Website page, log-in to your profile (1) Click on your user window pull down arrow at the top right of the menu where your thumbnail picture is ( 2) Select “Settings” (3) Select “Applications” (4) “Revoke Access” to any related scam application (if any) (5) Delete all related tweets (6) Contact and help your friends to clean up their accounts (7) Run your Anti Virus in Full Scan mode.

Facebook “ Free Apple iTunes $25 Giftcard “ Scam Spreading Virally

Thousands of users worldwide are being taken to this scam whose only purpose is to earn money for the scammers. There is no free lunch anywhere, let alone the “free Apple $25 iTunes Giftcard. Victims are taken to real surveys that pay scammers money. The scam runs as follows:

Victimized users are posting messages in their walls that read:

“Free $25 Apple iTunes Giftcard

Bonusitunesgiftcard.blogspot.com

Limited time left, get yours now!”

Lets assume that you are the victim, when you click on the blue “Free $25 Apple iTunes Giftcard” link, you are taken to a webpage with an official Apple “man with the iPod” logo that urges you to follow two more “easy steps”, remember, you already clicked on one link (step 1), the second step is to click on an official Facebook “Share This” button to get your free card. When you click on step 2, you are then presented with a window with an  image of the real Apple $25 Giftcard and a Facebook “Share this link on your own wall” blue button, when the button is clicked, the Facebook interface will immediately send the same message you receive originally to all your friends, therefore propagating the scam.

The “last” step to “get your card” is step 3. Now you are presented with a window with a real Apple logo imagery so that you may think the “free card” campaign is endorsed by Apple. When victimized users click on the “finish by taking a survey” blue button, you are presented with a professional looking window that even has a “need help?” option. This window has a locked key image and is titled “Content Locked”, at this time, users should be suspicious, you followed three steps and no Giftcard yet?

Users are then told to select from three “offers” from winning an iPhone, a Mercedes or a Gucci shopping spree. You are then taken to a survey that could be on any subject. No one ever has received anything for taking the survey. What can you expect when you are taken by deception to a survey? As stated above, the surveys are real; therefore the scammer gets money for each survey taken.

To clean this mess, victims should do the following:

(1)  Go to your Facebook page and select your “News feed” and delete the related post by clicking the blue “Remove Post” button.

(2)  Notify your friends to follow the same steps.