Spammers curse Apple’s new Ping service with iPhone scams

James Etherington-Smith

James is journalist and sub-editor at MyBroadband, and editor at MyGaming. He is an avid gamer with an exceptional knowledge about gaming and related hardware...

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Sophos is calling on users of the new Ping musical social network, created by Apple and built into the new version of iTunes, to be on their guard against scammers and spammers who have deluged the system with fraudulent messages.

Ping, which was launched this week, is a cross-between Facebook and Twitter, giving over 160 million iTunes users the ability to build networks of friends and musicians, and read comments by other fans.

However, Sophos researchers have found that Ping is being over-run by scams and spam messages, some of which try and direct users into believing they will receive a free iPhone if they complete online surveys.

“Survey scams such as these are spreading far and wide via sites like Facebook, but clearly the lack of filtering on Ping is making it a brand new playground for the bad guys to operate in,” says Brett Myroff, CEO of regional Sophos distributor, Sophos South Africa.

“The most common scams on Ping right now revolve around Apple’s own iPhone.  It’s safe to assume that Ping does incorporate some rudimentary filtering to prevent offensive messages from being posted, so hopefully Apple’s security team can extend this to also block scam messages and malicious links. In the meantime, though, Ping users should be wary of believing what they read on the new service.”

Sophos published research earlier this year demonstrating that there had been a 70% increase in the number of users reporting spam and malware being spread via social networks, a trend which continues to grow.

“As more companies jump on the social networking bandwagon they must think carefully about what they are going to do to make their communities a safe place for users. If they’re complacent about these types of security risks users may end up voting with their feet, and find a safer place to spend their online time,” Myroff says.

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