Survey Scammers Moving to Pinterest

Survey scammers like to place enticing links in places such as forums, article comments, and social networks. These enticing links lead to surveys that promise items such as gift cards or free electronics, as long as you fill out multiple marketing surveys. Rarely is someone able to complete an entire set of surveys and the promise of a free item is rarely fulfilled, as we’ve discussed in the past with survey scammers spamming social networks.
A new social networking website called Pinterest garnered attention from the media after buzz at an interactive entertainment conference this month. Pinterest allows users to create virtual corkboards, pin content from other external Web pages onto these boards, and then share their boards with others. The new-found attention has not only brought new users, but scammers as well. Recent news articles have discussed how scammers are posting enticing images and links to supposed free offers onto Pinterest boards.
 

Figure 1. Example scam pins on Pinterest pointing to supposed free gift cards
 
If an unsuspecting Pinterest user clicks on the link for one of the scam images, he or she is taken to an external website. The website states that in order to take advantage of the offer, they must re-pin the offer onto their own Pinterest board. This helps (continue reading...)