Apple Watch scams target Twitter and Facebook users

It didn’t take long for spammers to jump on the Apple Watch bandwagon – they set up a Twitter account named “Apple Giveaways”, and began spamming out messages to random users, telling them they have been “chosen” and urging them to visit the site linked in the message.

The link leads them to an event page on Facebook, which instructs them to join the event, invite a minimum of 100 friends, and claim the Apple Watch by visiting another page at applewatchevent(dot)com (click on the screenshot to enlarge it):

The page’s black background hides text that’s aimed at leading users searching for information about the device via search engines to the page.

This last page asks users to enter their first and last name, and their Facebook handle, then promises they will be in touch in 72 hours with a confirmation link:

But you won’t. You have just been tricked into spamming your Facebook friends, and will likely be on the receiving end of more spam in the future.

“The creation date for the website is listed as March 9th, and the Whois details are hidden behind a Whoisguard so there’s no way to know who you’re sending your information to,” noted Malwarebytes’ Chris Boyd.

Unfortunately, at the time of publishing, the scammy Facebook event page and the page at applewatchevent(dot)com are still up, but will hopefully be taken down soon.

Nevertheless, others will surely pop up to fill their place, so users are advised to be careful about this type of offers. A good rule of thumb for evaluating if an offer is legitimate or not is: “If it sounds too good to be true, it’s probably a scam.”