IT security and data protection firm, Sophos, is today warning Facebook users to be wary of bogus event invites that are currently circulating on the social network. Spammers have invited millions of Facebook users to fake events in an attempt to generate income from online survey scams.

April 7, 2011 /India PRwire/ -- IT security and data protection firm, Sophos, is today warning Facebook users to be wary of bogus event invites that are currently circulating on the social network. Spammers have invited millions of Facebook users to fake events in an attempt to generate income from online survey scams.

One event, called "Who blocked you from his friend list?" has already tricked more than 165,000 people into signing-up, with a staggering 10.3 million users still debating whether to respond or not.

The scammers embed instructions into the 'More info' section of the event's summary, which leads unsuspecting Facebook users into visiting webpage's for online surveys or competitions, designed to earn commission for those behind the scheme. In some instances, users are also asked for a mobile phone number - which is then signed up to an expensive premium rate service.

"These spammed-out event invitations and links to survey scams are one of the biggest nuisances on Facebook right now, impacting millions of users every day," said Graham Cluley, Senior Technology Consultant at Sophos. "It would be great if Facebook was being more proactive in shutting down these obviously bogus events, as currently it's far too easy for the scammers to fill their pockets through schemes like this."

Facebook users are reminded never to accept unsolicited invitations from suspicious events, and always think twice about clicking on links received via Facebook.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

Notes to Editor

About Sophos

More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest TCO. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs-a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards. Sophos is headquartered in Oxford, UK and Boston, US. More information is available at www.sophos.com

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