If you’re a Facebook user, you’ve probably at some point received a curious message from a friend sharing ‘exciting news of great iPad offers’.
They generally say something along the lines of, “hey, don’t share this with anyone else but these guys are giving free ipad 3s because of some uk promotion” and include a link for you to follow.
A tempting offer for those keen to get their hands on a free iPad, but what happens when you click the link is less than tempting.
Be careful who you share your password with
By following the link, Facebook users are either then asked to login again on what looks like a Facebook page or are taken to another page that looks like it’s outside Facebook and asked to enter their email address to get to the information about the free iPad. It’s at this moment that their account is hijacked.
The hijackers then use the account to send their message far and wide to the 10s, 100s or 1000s of contacts of the hijacked account.
Never login twice
The general rule to always check the full domain name (ie. the web address) and remember is that if you’re reading a message within Facebook you’re already logged in.
So, if you’re taken a page that asks you to login again, it’s likely to be a scam to get your password.
