A report by Trend Micro’s Trend Labs reveals that many survey scams are popping up on the Pinterest site.
Scams on leading social media sites are nothing new as many are popping up on Facebook, for example. One popular Facebook scam tricked thousands of users into believing Lady Gaga was giving away free iPads.
Pinterest started in late 2009 and users share ideas and interests through photographs and anything visually based. The site has grown at a very quick rate with a reported 11 million visits during one week in December 2011.
Users are able to create their own boards where they can pin images and videos of their liking. They can also re-pin anything posted by other users to their own board.
The image below on Pinterest shows the starbucks logo offering to give a free gift cards to all Pinterest users.
Another scam told Pinterest users that they could receive a free Coach wallet or purse if they went to a certain website.
Criminals often use the names of well known brands to trick users to click on the links. If users click on the Pinterest Starbucks and Coach scam links they are then sent to a site that encourages them to re-pin the image. If they do, they are then taken to a survey scam site, Trend Micro says. Both the Starbucks and Coach scams lead to the same survey site.
