iPad, iPhone "prizes" as lures for Twitter users

Not surprisingly, spam using the Apple iPad as a lure to get users to give up personal or credit card information has began to make rounds of Twitter users.

Sunbelt reveals that Twitter bots have been hard at work spamming users discussing (or just mentioning) the iPad with messages such as these:

The link takes the users to promotional sites that where - in order to get and iPad - they are asked to fill in forms with a large amount of personal information, and to fill in some more information and get "accepted for a financial product such as a credit card or consumer loan” or even purchase something to get an additional gift ("2 years of unlimited data service").

In another instance, Sophos spotted an advert within a Twitpic page that offers the iPhone as a prize if you enter a competition that provides a perfunctory "spot the difference in the two pictures" quiz (in which, by the way, you can make as many mistakes as you want because you will be offered another chance to answer correctly).

When you provide the right answer, you are asked to provide various personal information so that they can send you the prize:

Both promotions seem legitimate, but it is only a matter of time when these "competitions" take a more malicious turn. Users are advised to remember that even if it says "Free!", you are actually "paying" for it with your personal information.

In this last instance, you could also incur an immediate material cost if you are not careful - the checked (by default) checkbox at the bottom of the page will sign you up for an alert service that costs £1.50 per week.