IT security and data protection firm Sophos is warning Facebook users about a new scam that is spreading across the social network, claiming to offer users free pizza from Pizza Hut….
Facebook’s security systems aren’t currently blocking this scam and bogus messages are continuing to spread across the network saying:
Eat for Free at Pizza Hut!
[LINK]
Take advantage of this special Pizza Hut offer! Receive a FREE pizza coupon today! Act quickly before the supply runs out. With only a few coupons left, they’ll go fast!
If users click on this link, they are taken to a webpage which claims that all users need to do to receive a free pizza coupon is share the link with their online friends, and leave a comment saying that they think Pizza Hut serves "the greatest food". If Facebook users agree to this, they not only share this link on their wall and help to spread this scam, but they will also have their browser redirected to a third-party, “make money fast" website which requests a range of personal information. This webpage contains no reference to any free pizza, and is likely to be a site that earns the scammers commission the more people they can get to enter their information.
"Even if people wise up to this webpage and decide not to share their personal information, they’ve already helped to spread the scam to all of their Facebook friends," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. "Facebook users need to stop making it so easy for scammer and spammers to pollute Facebook with these money-making campaigns by thinking twice before they share links on Facebook, or click on unknown links, even if they’re posted on a friend’s wall. Spreading these scams helps to do the bad guys’ work for them, and there is no way of telling what the scammers do with the information they harvest through these sites."
Facebook users that have been affected should delete references to this scam from their wall, to avoid sharing it further with their online friends.
More information about the attack, including screenshots, can be found on Sophos’s Naked Security site.
Sophos’s Facebook page, which warns of emerging threats on Facebook, can be found at: http://www.facebook.com/SophosSecurity
