14 DAY TRIAL // “Youve Won: Amazon $500 Gift Card with Kindle Fire - see details,” reads the hastily written scam email that may land in your inbox these days.
Internauts who fall for it and click on the link are taken to a website that – based upon their location – displays a hard-to-resist offer.
The victim can allegedly win prizes (anything from laptops to mobile phone apps) if he/she completes a quick survey. At the end of the survey, the user is requested to provide his/her phone number or email address.
While the email address can only be used by the cybercriminals to send targeted spam messages, the phone number is utilized for much more dangerous things. By entering the phone number, the unsuspecting user is actually signing up to a paid mobile service.
The fact that each received SMS costs a few dollars or EUROs is revealed on the bottom of the page, but since few people take their time to read the fine print, many may find themselves paying for services they don’t actually need.