Free Facebook Mug scam doing rounds

A few months ago it was a free Facebook t-shirt to celebrate the social network’s 7th birthday, now it’s a free Facebook-themed ceramic mug, but the scam behind the lure is the same.

To get the free mug, users are required to “Like” a few pages, the hop through a few hoops:

The goal of the scammers is to get their hands on the users’ Facebook e-mail address or ID, so that they can post malicious or spammy messages on the users’ walls without them noticing or having a say so in it.

“Providing this piece of information to scammers is a big mistake as they would then be able to post anything on your Facebook Wall,” warns BitDefender. “Even if it does not provide direct access to an account, in some ways, having this e-mail address is better than having your Facebook password.” Indeed, posting messages by email will not prompt Facebook to send a warning to the real owner of an account.

As the finishing touch, the scammers request of the user to fill out a survey – supposedly to verify he or she isn’t a bot.