“Free iPads and laptops” Facebook scheme silently lurks

Two years have passed since Michael Jackson’s untimely death, and legions of his fans have, understandably, wished to commemorate his birthday, which falls on August 29.

Unfortunately, cyber scammers had the same idea, so they created a Facebook page named “I Love Michael Jackson” and offered a place for those fans to share the love they had for the popular singer.

Leaving messages on the Wall of that page is a rather harmless action, but in the left column, under the links to the “Info” and “Photo” sections, are three offers that might lure in some of the nearly 33,000 users who have already liked the page – “Get a FREE iPad 2”, “Take the Facebook survey to claim a FREE prize” and “Test & Keep a FREE Dell laptop”:

BitDefender followed the steps for getting the free iPad and to be eligible for the offer, the user must agree to receive promotional emails and special offers from third parties, share his personal information (name, address, email address, date of birth, cell phone and home phone number), complete a survey and “complete at least 10 Reward Offers”.

In the end, there is no free iPad to be had, and the scammers have collected the user’s personal information and will likely sell it on. But, it’s worth to note that these are some picky scammers – they are obviously not interested in all the personal information they can get. Users located in Europe might be safe, since the offer is unavailable in this area.