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iPad Research Center, Steps 2 and 3

Karen — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:24:58 +0000

A brave soul ventured into the unknown and came back with a report. She became a fan of one of the many free iPad phishing pages. It appears that the phishers are trying to perfect their presentation. The screenshots look nicer than the original and I think I remember reading somewhere yesterday that they started hosting the images on a domain they recently purchased (recently, as in the day before) instead of imgur.com.

Step 1 is to become a fan and Step 2 and 3 will be revealed to you after you become a fan. I did not go past Step 1 but ClappingTree did, so here it is:

Step 2. As part of the registration process you have to invite all your friends! Don’t forget to include a little snippet of Javascript when you tell them about the page because we all know that Javascript is important for letting your friends know about an offer. I do not get Facebook in China so I cannot look at the script. I wonder what it is. Does anyone want to share?

A quick Google search reveals a little “important” note from the “company.”

IMPORTANT: We track how many friends you invited in step 2.
- iPad Research Program – Test It and Keep It! Facebook page

I am going to take a guess that they promised that inviting more friends will increase your chances of being chosen for becoming an iPad tester. Just a guess. Maybe they told the users that the Javascript snippet was to keep track of how many friends they invite.

After completing Step 2, you can move onto Step 3.

Step 3. Uh-oh.

Sorry, this offer is unavailable in your country. You are now being redirected to a similar offer that is available in your country.

She was sent to a page with smiley icons. Explain to me how smiley icons equals a similar offer to free iPads. It was probably those websites you get in pop-up advertisements for free emoticon downloads that are actually *.exe files that claim to install it onto your system for you but really is a trojan or something similar.

It may seem harmless to supply your e-mail address to phishers but they are the tip of the iceberg. They sell your information as cold contacts to cyber scammers and you get flooded with fake product offers for Viagara, Vicodin, designer watches or “security alerts” from your bank requesting you to “confirm” confidential information. You are the perfect target, you already fell for it once and they are expecting you to fall for it again.

ClappingTree.com: “iPad Research – Test and Keep” scam?
Computer Crime Research Center: “How cybercrime operations work – and why they make money”

Part 1. iPad Research Center – Test & Keep It, really?
Part 2. iPad Research Center – Test & Keep It reacts?
Part 3. iPad Research Center – Test & Keep It: The Sequel
Part 4. iPad Research Center, Steps 2 and 3

chquonk

iPad Research Center – Test & Keep It: The Sequel

Karen — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 12:20:54 +0000

It’s like playing tag. I would blog about the Olympics but Canada only has one medal right now so there’s not much to talk about… unless I want to talk about the Korean wiping out his own teammate on the short track losing South Korea the sweep. Olivier didn’t make it to the podium but it’s just Day 2, we have time.

Welcome to the iPad Research Center – Test & Keep It sequel. After the second post, they posted a link to another Facebook page Invite Your Friends and Get Free Stuff and allowed comments or maybe that was during the second post and I just didn’t mention it. Details, what a…, oh well. You can imagine the number of responses. Actually, there’s only 450 comments that includes a healthy mixture of advertisements for more ‘free iPad’ offers, defamatory comments and testimonies.

Back in the day when I used to walk to school in neck-high snow and subzero temperatures in my bare feet, I used to reply to my friends that sent me chain letters to my inbox with facts or websites about why the chain letter was a scam. You just need to educate sometimes. We all know that the Prince of Nigeria has made you his heir, he made me his heir, too. Actually, I’ve never received that specific phishing scam but it is a popular one from what I read.

The new head count of fans on iPad Research Center – Test & Keep It has increased to 240,000 fans. I think they caught wind that I was bored and wanted to rain on their parade. They’ve moved, their new Facebook page is We’re Giving Away Free Apple iPads. They took my advice and increased the quality of some of their images and even decided to include testimonial Facebook comments, of course, just a screen shot. Instead of editing their poor grammar on their original image, they decided they were not going to bother with it at all and took it out entirely.

The steps are still the same. Just three simple steps.

Step 1. Become a Fan.

Step 2. Uhhh.. when you become a fan, we will tell you Step 2. So… Become a Fan!

Step 3. That follows Step 2 so… Become a Fan!

Even the Terms and Conditions are the same.

The Apple iPad giveaway is coming from a third party site myrewardsvault.com. Please see their Terms and Conditions for further information.

This Facebook Page is not affiliated with Apple Inc. All Apple® trademarks are the property of Apple Inc. and this Facebook Page does not, in any way, claim to represent or own any of the Apple® trademarks or rights. Apple® does not own, endorse, or promote this Facebook Fan Page.

The link on their wall leads you to a YouTube video of a fourth-party-posted Apple iPad Commercial. The new We’re Giving Away Free Apple iPads has recruited 46,000 fans. In total, that’s almost 300,000 users who took the bait. I wonder what their next Facebook page name will be.

Other variations:

Apple iPad Market Research Testing: Test and keep and iPad today
Get a FREE iPad
Get Your Free iPad…
How to get a Free iPad!
iPad Beta – Test It and Keep It!
iPad Beta Center – Get an iPad before anyone else!
iPad Research Center – Test & Keep It
iPad Research Program – Test It and Keep It!
Test & Keep a NEW Apple iPad
Testers Wanted: Test New iPad, Keep It

chquonk

iPad Research Center – Test & Keep It reacts?

Karen — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 04:46:02 +0000

Sometimes, I don’t like to leave things alone. About 36 hours after my post there are some updates on the iPad Research Center – Test & Keep It Facebook page. Btw, there are 34,000 new fans since I last visited. The ‘Become a Tester’ application is no longer an application but instead an image linked from a public image-sharing website instead of a private server. That’s a little unprofessional for a company that’s giving away a chunk of merchandise that has a retail value of $5,000,000 USD. Not to mention the poor image quality and spelling mistakes in the advertisement.

Following the image that was poorly scrambled together, there is an invitation to test the Apple iPad. Oh no, it is only for a limited time and we have to enter now. And look, there are only three easy steps to get your free Apple iPad.

Step 1. Become a Fan.

Step 2. Uhhh.. when you become a fan, we will tell you Step 2. So… Become a Fan!

Step 3. That follows Step 2 so… Become a Fan!

The next update is the Terms and Conditions section. Today, it reads:

The Apple iPad giveaway is coming from a third party site myrewardsvault.com. Please see their Terms and Conditions for further information.

This Facebook Page is not affiliated with Apple Inc. All Apple® trademarks are the property of Apple Inc. and this Facebook Page does not, in any way, claim to represent or own any of the Apple® trademarks or rights. Apple® does not own, endorse, or promote this Facebook Fan Page.

Thirty-six hours ago, that first paragraph did not exist. So I went to check it out. MyRewardsVault.com is a website claiming to reward a $250 gift card of your choice ‘with completion of program requirements.’ iPad Research Center – Test & Keep It tells you to see their Terms and Conditions on this so-called website. Who takes the time to read the Terms and Conditions? Good luck with that.

Edit: Just as I was posting, there were three iPad Research Center – Test & Keep It pages. One with 65,000 fans, the second with 300 odd fans and the last one with 50 odd fans. I did another search shortly after and there is a new Facebook group.

iPad Research Center: Become a fan and you’re clinically stupid.

Join the movement. =D

chquonk

iPad Research Center – Test & Keep It, really?

Karen — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:30:27 +0000

I’m back in Toronto for a week and a half for ‘Spring Break’ meaning I get access to Facebook during this time. Why do they call it spring break? I have no idea. But anyways… today’s new feed includes this:

Friend One and Friend Two became fans of iPad Research Center – Test & Keep It.
Yesterday at 7:37 pm Become a Fan

I’m thinking to myself, Really? No way. I really don’t care for any of the pages on Facebook but c’mon, it is a chance for a free iPad. But I know 99.9 percent of the time it’s a scam, but I had to visit anyways. Sound familiar? Phishing for yummy things through e-mail? But I don’t know of any phishing they can do with my Facebook privacy settings if I clicked so I clicked this time. The first page it brings you to is a ‘Become a Tester’ application. For one reason or another it did not load in my browser but that was the first flag. When you visit Facebook applications, it gives it permission to access your ‘public’ Facebook information and anything else that you have made available to them. Anything with privacy set to ‘Everyone’ will be shared and anything else they ask you for and you allow. Since most people don’t read and don’t bother to change their privacy settings they are probably getting the information that they want. Who cares? So it’s your name, profile picture, gender, current city, networks, friends list and pages, no harm, right? Now, your friends are your friends, right? No need to worry about what information you share with them. I don’t know what the old default privacy settings were but if your friend decides to use an application, they can share your information with the application based on what you allow your friends to share. Did you change your privacy settings yet?

Second flag is the Info section. There are two pieces of information:

Founded: 2010

Company Overview: We are a marketing research company, that is looking for people to test products and constantly improve them to bring continuous satisfaction to customers. Currently we are doing a research into Apple products. You can participate to receive and test a free iPad, after the research is done, you can keep it. Currently we are looking for 10,000 testers, so feel free to invite your friends.

Be discerning. A marketing firm that is truly offering 10,000 free iPads should have enough money in their budget to put together an attractive, well-designed, correctly-functioning website and not rely just on Facebook as a marketing tool. I admit, Facebook is a pretty good place to start but it’s not the only place to go. Why do they not have an external website? Or the more obvious, why is there no company information? Founded in 2010? I don’t know what information its asking you for in the ‘Become a Tester’ application but you might want to change your Privacy Settings for future ‘deals’. iPad is the new toy and phishers know that. Read between the lines before you sign your life away for a free iPad. Make sure it is legit then you can sign your life away. =D

chquonk