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Fraudsters Arouse Twilight Fans with Bogus Contact Lenses

Bianca STANESCU

November 09, 2012

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Fraudsters Arouse Twilight Fans with Bogus Contact Lenses

As thousands of fans camp out in Los Angeles ahead of next week`s “Twilight” world premiere, cyber-crooks lure Facebook users with a fresh “Breaking Dawn”³ scam to steal credentials and money.

A freshly created Twilight Facebook page has already driven the attention of up to 35,000 fans, most of them young women. The unwary lady users are lured with free Twilight Vampire contact lenses that may come in different colors to suit any girl`s outfit. Golden, red, or black”¦ just pick your favorite to get the ultimate vampire look to un-die for.

“7 DAYS UNTIL BREAKING DAWN PART 2 IS OUT!,” the Facebook post reads. “To celebrate we’re giving away FREE Twilight Vampire contacts!”

Of course, real fans are put to an endurance test and have to follow several steps to get the desired contacts. They first have to “like” the fake post and share it with their friends to increase the scam`s popularity.

Then, they have to click a consumer reward link. To get fans to click without thinking too much, scammers added a third breath-taking step: “Be sure to choose if you want Golden, Red, or Black contacts!”

The link redirects users to a phishing page to select a prize and enter their e-mail to get free “official” Twilight merchandize. The web site redirects again to a free tickets page where users are also asked for their e-mail.

The congratulations message that follows asks Twilight fans for all the information scammers need to steal a fan`s identity: name, e-mail address (again!), valid cell phone, mailing address, city, state, zip code. The process of filling out the form is never ending, as users are brought again to the phishing page after clicking the “continue” button.

At the same time, a beautiful pop-up appears to make the scam complete.

Antivirus solutions block the web page ” it has been blacklisted as fraud. Here’s how Bitdefender`s free app Safego, which protects social media accounts from scams, spam, malware and private data exposure, detects the Twilight scam:

This is not the first time scammers take advantage of the vampire saga`s excited fans. In August, Facebook users were tricked with a fake death video that alleged Robert Pattinson passed away because a nervous breakdown due to emotional stress. Last year, a Twilight game scam also spread on Facebook to steal personal details after a bogus questionnaire.

“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn ” Part 2″³ opens in several European countries on November 14 and arrives in US movie theaters on November 16.

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Bianca STANESCU

Bianca Stanescu, the fiercest warrior princess in the Bitdefender news palace, is a down-to-earth journalist, who's always on to a cybertrendy story.

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