14 DAY TRIAL // After yesterday’s news that fake posts were made on Lady Gaga’s official Facebook page, in which the celebrity promised her fans a free iPad, now it seems her Twitter account was taken over as well.
“Monsters, I’m giving away FREE iPad2’s to each one of you in the spirit of the holidays :) Go to [LINK] to receive one,” reads the fake tweet.
Unsuspecting victims who clicked on the link were redirected to a classic survey scam that promised fabulous prizes in return for some private information.
While an email address in return for an iPad may not sound like such a bad deal, in reality, no one ever actually wins the prizes and the sensitive information handed over by the user is later utilized to launch other malicious campaigns.
“Phew. The hacking is over! And just in time, I'm on my way to Japan! So excited to spend Xmastime with my TokyoMonsters!,” said Lady Gaga in a tweet 13 hours ago.
According to Websense, the domain used in the scam was suspended, but that doesn’t mean this operation is over. The cybercriminals will most likely set up a new domain and find some other public figure’s unprotected account to launch similar schemes.
Lady Gaga, or the individuals that administrate her digital assets, may have fallen victim to a phishing operation and that’s probably how her account was accessed.
Even if you’re not a celebrity, be careful about the websites you use to log-in to an account since the Twitter phishing attempts seen lately are well designed and even the more tech savvy users can fall into the traps they set.
Also, try not to click on suspicious links, even if they seem to come from a trusted friend or a celebrity that can easily afford to give away iPads for the holidays.