Security researchers from GFI Sunbelt warn that scammers are tricking Facebook users into participating in surveys and sending spam by promising them 10 million free Texas Hold'em poker chips.
These are not real poker chips, but virtual currency for the popular Texas HoldEm Poker game on Facebook, which is developed and run by Zynga.
"Zynga just gave me 10 million poker chips for Texas Hold'em Poker, for FREE! Get yours now: [url] Limited time offer!," the Facebook spam
messages read.
As it turns out, the scammers don't only abuse Zynga's name and reputation, but also the company's logo, which is clearly visible on the external landing page the link points to.
Moreover, a large banner with graphics from the real game and the text "FREE 10M POKER CHIPS" is also displayed to make it appear as if this is a legit campaign.
As it usually the case with most of these scams, the users are asked to jump through a few hoops in order to allegedly receive the amazing bonus.
The first step involves Liking the rogue page, which will promote it to their walls. At the time of writing this article almost 13,000 users fell for the trick and did this.
The second step requires Sharing the page, while the third and most intrusive of all tells users to post the previously mentioned spam message in five different places on Facebook.
Ana even if a misguided user does all this, they will still not get the 10 million chips. Instead they will be asked to complete one of several surveys in order to "help keep this quality content available."
These surveys attempt to sign up users to useless premium rate services and the scammers earn money through affiliate marketing schemes for directing traffic to them.
According to GFI Sunbelt's Tom Kelchner some of the websites users are led to offer game downloads rigged with adware.
These are not real poker chips, but virtual currency for the popular Texas HoldEm Poker game on Facebook, which is developed and run by Zynga.
"Zynga just gave me 10 million poker chips for Texas Hold'em Poker, for FREE! Get yours now: [url] Limited time offer!," the Facebook spam
messages read.
As it turns out, the scammers don't only abuse Zynga's name and reputation, but also the company's logo, which is clearly visible on the external landing page the link points to.
Moreover, a large banner with graphics from the real game and the text "FREE 10M POKER CHIPS" is also displayed to make it appear as if this is a legit campaign.
As it usually the case with most of these scams, the users are asked to jump through a few hoops in order to allegedly receive the amazing bonus.
The first step involves Liking the rogue page, which will promote it to their walls. At the time of writing this article almost 13,000 users fell for the trick and did this.
The second step requires Sharing the page, while the third and most intrusive of all tells users to post the previously mentioned spam message in five different places on Facebook.
Ana even if a misguided user does all this, they will still not get the 10 million chips. Instead they will be asked to complete one of several surveys in order to "help keep this quality content available."
These surveys attempt to sign up users to useless premium rate services and the scammers earn money through affiliate marketing schemes for directing traffic to them.
According to GFI Sunbelt's Tom Kelchner some of the websites users are led to offer game downloads rigged with adware.
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