Ahead of Apple’s expected announcement next week of the release of the iPad3, the Internet is full of scams, many of them found on Twitter and Facebook for free iPad3s.  They are all scams.  Generally, these phony offers are used as lures that either take you to the relatively harmless, but still annoying surveys for which the scammer is paid by commission for each person who takes the survey or, in a more serious vein, results in your unwittingly downloading keystroke logging software, sometimes called Trojan Horses, which are able to read all of the information on your computer, including credit card information, bank passwords and other financial data that can result in you becoming a serious victim of identity theft.  Many people trust the offers because they appear on their Facebook page without realizing that it is a relatively simple matter for a Facebook page to be hacked into and an offer can appear to be forwarded to you by a trusted friend when, in fact, it is coming from a scam artist.

TIP

The old adage still holds.  If it appears to good to be true, it generally is.  never click on any link that is not from a source that you are absolutely sure is legitimate.  If you are not sure, but still want to consider going to the link, make sure that you confirm that any link you are clicking on is absolutely legitimate.  Otherwise the risk is too great.  And always keep your firewall and security software up to date.