Caveat emptor. Let the buyer beware. Along with announcements of a new Apple TV and new iPods, Apple has unveiled their new music-based social network, Ping, which allows users to follow music artists and friends and integrates with iTunes so that a customized top 10 list of music will be created based on what those artists and friends are downloading. Ping also provides information about local concerts and will let your friends know if you are attending. I suppose there’s still room in the world for yet another social network, right?
So why do I issue a warning at the beginning of this post? Apparently Ping, even in its infancy, is already heavy-laden with spammers offering up all kinds of promised goodies and scams, with most of the spam focused on providing links claiming to offer up free iPhones and iPads and other Apple products in exchange for filling out surveys. According to Sophos security expert, Chester Wisniewski:
If half as many free iPads, iPhones and iPods were being given away as Ping comments might lead you to believe, there will be no reason to bother with going to an Apple Store. But if you actually want an Apple device, my advice is to go out and buy one, as filling out surveys will likely only end in tears.
Once again, there’s no free lunch. So why is all this spam saturating Ping already? There are a couple reasons why spammers are liking Ping. First of all, Ping does not feature any spam or URL filtering, so currently it’s a spamming paradise. Also, over 160 million iTunes account owners can access Ping — and these owners have active iTunes accounts and credit card numbers associated with these accounts. Ergo, they have buying power. If you decide to use Ping, just keep in mind you’ll have to do your own spam and scam filtering.
…finally iTunes 10 has installed, and I’ve had to click on the accept terms and condition button yet again! But, for the moment, I refuse to sign up\be a part of Ping. I have to say, this is a surprise move by Apple to even go in this direction.
Thanks to this article, I updated my profile and tightened up the privacy settings…
I guess the better question would be, why are people following spammers? Or, why are people accepting invites from people they don’t know?
iPadUseful, I guess there’s always at least a few that will unwittingly fall into a trap, particularly if the spam they receive seems like a legitimate communication (i.e., from Apple) from a “trusted” source. With well over a million Ping users already, I would guess that spammers feel it’s a ripe market to find a few victims.