Fraudsters smell a chance to make money even in Jobs' death

Beware of the free 1,000 iPads or 15 MacBook Pro on offer in memory of Steve Jobs on social networking sites like Facebook as these are only a ploy by cyber fraudsters who smell a chance to hoodwink gullible Web surfers even in the death of the Apple co-founder.

Internet security company Trend Micro said it has noticed a trap on Facebook which claims that Apple has decided to give away 1,000 iPads in memory of Steve Jobs.

Another IT security company Kaspersky Lab said it has identified a fake contest which claims a chance to win "1 of 15 MacBook Pros in memory of Steve Jobs!".

"While you won't win a new laptop, the chances of you winning a whole new batch of spam emails are high," Kaspersky Lab said in a statement.

The catch behind this scam is that there is no such offer from Apple and that the only ones who will get anything from it are scammers, looking to earn money from the ads displayed every time a user is tricked into following the instructions, Trend Micro statement said.

"Also, as more users share the link, the number of potential victims also increases, along with the profit of the scammers behind the ruse," Trend Micro further added.

Kaspersky Lab Researcher Dmitri Bestuzhev said it has found another cyber trap which claims to give chance to see exclusive photos and video footage from Steve Jobs' funeral.

Kaspersky Lab said "this video footage header reads 'The Life, Death, and Legacy of Steve Jobs'". The message says, Kaspersky Lab, added, "video footage and images will be here uploaded live from the funeral ceremony. Check back each day to see if they are posted".

Trend Micro has cautioned that there can be several such scams and users should not click on similar posts if they see them on Facebook newsfeeds.

Just a couple of months ago, we saw scams that took advantage of the death of singer Amy Winehouse, Trend Micro said. Rumors of the death of Lady Gaga has also led to many a scam, it added.