- Jan 24, 2011
- 9,378
Facebook scammers are taking advantage of FarmVille's popularity again to trick users into taking surveys by luring them with a news page for the game.
For a lot of time, FarmVille was the most popular game on Facebook, and even though it has been overthrown by CityVille, it still has tens of millions of active players.
The game's huge following makes it a very attractive theme for scams and many campaigns have already used its name so far.
All Facebook reports that the latest scam to employ a FarmVille-related lure takes users to a rogue page called "Whatâs New On FarmVille?" which entices them with a 200 Farm Cash bonus.
This is a more traditional scam in the sense that it doesn't involve an app specially designed for spamming purposes. Instead it asks users to manually advertise the page.
Clicking on the button to accept the free Farm Cash bonus prompts users to complete one of several surveys first.
Sometimes called offers, these "surveys" are part of affiliate marketing schemes which, in the best case, try to gather information about people for future marketing campaigns.
However, the most deceitful of them, attempt to subscribe victims to premium rate services billed on their mobile phone or to sign them up for non-free product trials.
Scammers get paid a hefty commission for every user who completes one of these surveys and some affiliate marketing companies are well aware that their traffic comes from scams.
Read more
For a lot of time, FarmVille was the most popular game on Facebook, and even though it has been overthrown by CityVille, it still has tens of millions of active players.
The game's huge following makes it a very attractive theme for scams and many campaigns have already used its name so far.
All Facebook reports that the latest scam to employ a FarmVille-related lure takes users to a rogue page called "Whatâs New On FarmVille?" which entices them with a 200 Farm Cash bonus.
This is a more traditional scam in the sense that it doesn't involve an app specially designed for spamming purposes. Instead it asks users to manually advertise the page.
Clicking on the button to accept the free Farm Cash bonus prompts users to complete one of several surveys first.
Sometimes called offers, these "surveys" are part of affiliate marketing schemes which, in the best case, try to gather information about people for future marketing campaigns.
However, the most deceitful of them, attempt to subscribe victims to premium rate services billed on their mobile phone or to sign them up for non-free product trials.
Scammers get paid a hefty commission for every user who completes one of these surveys and some affiliate marketing companies are well aware that their traffic comes from scams.
Read more
