Watch Out: Cyber Criminals Launching Steve Jobs' Death Scams

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
Dmitri Bestuzhev / Twitpic

It's sad but probably inevitable: When someone as recognizable and popular as Apple's Steve Jobs passes away, cyber crooks and spam moguls turn up in droves.

So watch out, because the scams are already circulating, like one noticed by Kapersky Lab's Dmitri Bestuzhev, who snapped pictures of a Jobs'-death-related shakedown.

"The death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was mourned by millions across the globe on October 5, 2011," it reads, urging visitors to "Remember Steve Jobs" by clicking "to purchase on of his inventions." Fake contest text highlighted neon-green claims you could "Win 1 of 15 MacBook Pros in Memory of Steve Jobs" is you submit your email. Do so, and chances are all you'll win is pole position placement on someone's virtual spam rolodex.

MORE: Steve Jobs: Not a Gamer, but a Game Changer

And then it gets downright disturbing, with purported links to "Photos of the Funeral and the Coffin," a "Video of Steve's Funeral," and an option to "Pay Tribute to Steve." There's even a dummy photo of some random, actual funeral with a promise that "Video footage and images will be here uploaded live from the funeral ceremony," and to "Check back here each day to see if they are posted."

Then there's this Facebook scam, morbidly titled "R.I.P. Steve Jobs," and claiming that "In memory of Steve, a company is giving out 50 ipads tonight. R.I.P. Steve Jobs," followed by links to an online survey and a virtual casino. Security firm Sophos walks through the scam, explaining why the chances anyone's getting a free iPad out of it by clicking the link are essentially zero, though it seems well over 15,000 people were already suckered into doing so.

"How do the scammers make money?" writes Sophos' Graham Cluley. "Well, they are earning affiliate cash - in a nutshell, they make more money the more traffic they can direct to websites, driving more people to become customers, or take online surveys and competitions."

And as a warning, he adds: "Chances are that this won't be the only scam we see regarding the untimely death of Steve Jobs. It wouldn't be a surprise, for instance, to see scams which might try to take advantage of those moved by the loss of Apple's founder with lures like 'Donate to Steve's favourite charities as a tribute'."

So be careful out there, and probably best to steer clear of anything related to Steve Jobs' death that involves solicitous emails, funeral pictures, Apple product contests, tribute link bait, or that asks you to pass along your personal info (including your email address).

[via MSNBC]

MORE: The 10 Most Memorable Apple Commercials

Matt Peckham is a reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @mattpeckham or on Facebook. You can also continue the discussion on TIME's Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.

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TECHNOLOGY, Romance Scams Pick on Divorced, Lovelorn

Research out of the UK today says that perhaps as many as 200,00 people have been victims of online romance scams and the same study says over one million people personally know someone who has been scammed by one of these heartless fraudsters.
The online research was conducted by the UK's University of Leicester found that 52% of people surveyed online had heard of the online romance scam when it was explained to them and that one in every 50 online adults know someone personally who had fallen victim to it. The results confirm the law enforcement belief that this type of crime is often not reported by those affected, in many cases due to embarrassment at having been duped, or through a continuing hope that there will eventually be a genuine romance, the study found.
[RELATED: Online Dating for Nerds: Looking for Love in All the Wrong Postings]
According to the FBI's IC3, scammers use poetry, flowers, and other gifts to reel in victims, the entire time declaring their "undying love." These criminals also use stories of severe life circumstances, tragedies, deaths in the family, injuries to themselves, or other hardships to keep their victims concerned and involved in their schemes. Scammers also ask victims to send money to help overcome a financial situation they claim to be experiencing. These are all lies intended to take money from unsuspecting victims, the IC3 says.
The romance scam is particularly cruel in that perpetrators spend long periods of time grooming their victims, working out their vulnerabilities and when the time is right to ask for money. "It is our view that the trauma caused by this scam is worse than any other, because of the 'double hit' experienced by the victims - loss of monies and a 'romantic relationship'. It may well be that the shame and upset experienced by the victims deters them from reporting the crime. We thus believe new methods of reporting the crime are needed," said the authors of the study, Professor Monica Whitty, a psychologist and professor of contemporary media at the University of Leicester, and Dr. Tom Buchanan, a psychologist at the University of Westminster.
[More on online scams: FBI details worst social networking cyber crime problems]
According to the UK's Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA) romance fraud is organized crime, usually operating from outside the UK. Criminal groups make initial contact with potential victims through online dating sites and social networking sites, and will try to move the 'relationship' away from monitored online space before defrauding people of what can amount to large sums of money, the researchers said. In some cases, even when victims cannot, or will not, send money, scammers involve them instead in money laundering by asking them to accept money into their bank accounts.
Romance fraud is by no means a problem only in the UK. It is routinely listed by the FBI as one of the most popular scams. In fact the marriage of Britain's Prince William in April caused the FBI to issue a romance scam alert in the U.S. because the scammers came out of the woodwork.
Scammers search chat rooms, dating sites and social networking sites looking for victims. The principal group of victims is over 40 years old and divorced, widowed, elderly, or disabled, but all demographics are at risk, the IC3 stated.
IC3 complainants most often report Nigeria, Ghana, England, and Canada as the location of the many scammers.
The Army Times newspaper story detailed the growing trend of fraudsters stealing the identities of U.S. Army soldiers from social network sites and then using that information to set up false profiles on Internet dating sites. The profiles are used to dupe prospective dates out of their money. But there are other consequences too.
From the Army Times: "The unwitting soldiers are sometimes victims when their loved ones discover the online profiles and believe their soldiers are looking to cheat. [Master Sgt. C.J. Grisham, who uses his blog, "A Soldier's Perspective," to expose scammers using the soldier dating con] said the scam is a new twist on the so-called Nigerian 419 advance fee scam, and its popularity is growing, fueled by soldiers' routine use of social networking sites and the Internet's penetration into Third-World havens for con men. 'In the past year, the traffic on my site related to the scams I write about has tripled,' Grisham said. 'I'll get 30 to 40 comments a day and 20 e-mails a day asking me to look into whether or not they're being scammed.'"
Follow Michael Cooney on Twitter: nwwlayer8
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