Facebook IQ Test Scam

[Mriceguy]

For those of you that use Facebook, you may have seen them. The ads that show your friends having already taken an IQ test along with some scores. These are obviously all fake but a friend of mine fell for it and entered her mobile number to get the results.

She then got spammed by texts and lost all her credit, the $20 on her account. Anyone know of any solutions to stop the texts? It may work just by texting a reply saying stop but of course she has no money left! And the same thing will just happen again...

The Stuff article also covers it...
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/di...-scam-IQ-tests

[Brianemone]

We really do need new emoticons to express my displeasure.

[bradleycampbell]

Have a read of this page:
Someone on geekzone had the same issue with the IQ scam:
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp...&topicid=34934

[Mc Fadge]

New sim card?

[ahmad]

This was discussed in Geekzone forums.

One of the Vodafone higher-ups who quite often chips in with sweeping generalisations and error-filled facts said:

Look, it's clear that you have some how signed up for this. In all my years at Vodafone, I've looked at thousands of cases and in every single case we can link it back to the user signing up.

We have a policy where you must receive a confirmation TXT message and you must reply to this TXT message before you are signed up. In every single case I've looked at this has happened.

The OP there rejects this adamantly and outlines how it was impossible for them to have signed up (the confirmation of the subscription came through in the middle of the night while they were sleeping), but then the Vodafone guy never comes back into the conversation.

It's just poor and Vodafone don't take any of this crap seriously. I don't know how Telecom fares as I haven't taken much notice, but this sort of rubbish from Vodafone never listening to their customers and making stupid assumptions and treating their customers with contempt is going to push me away from them.

End rant.

[Newsboy]

Look, my opinion is that if you're dumb enough to click on them and ENTER YOUR GODDAMN NUMBER it's your own fault.

[BorDAr]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

Look, my opinion is that if you're dumb enough to click on them and ENTER YOUR GODDAMN NUMBER it's your own fault.

this

its not vodafones fault that someone gave their number to something and didnt read the fine print

[ahmad]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

Look, my opinion is that if you're dumb enough to click on them and ENTER YOUR GODDAMN NUMBER it's your own fault.

Fact remains, that Vodafone terms and conditions themselves require that a user actively reply to a TXT to opt-in, and in this IQ test case, it didn't happen.

Or at least this was the IQ test that they covered on Geekzone.

In that case the person didn't even do anything or enter a number. The number was (allegedly) just taken from the facebook profile (dumb idea to put it there to be honest).

Still, this doesn't excuse the scamming company.

[Mriceguy]

Yeah will have to try the reply with STOP thing.

But do you agree that it's shady practice for Facebook to allow advertisers to use people's friends in ads? I mean the first time I saw those ads I thought they were authentic.

[Mc Fadge]

Originally Posted by Mriceguy

Yeah will have to try the reply with STOP thing.

But do you agree that it's shady practice for Facebook to allow advertisers to use people's friends in ads? I mean the first time I saw those ads I thought they were authentic.

Very shady. Imagine if you had an ad on Xbox/PS3 where it showed your friends' avatars with scores and rankings underneath them, "Click here to bet your friends' top scores!". That kind of crap would get pulled so fast. This may seem a bit of an unfair analogy, but IQ scores and other random quizzes are a large part of the Facebook community.

[emetic]

Originally Posted by Mriceguy

Yeah will have to try the reply with STOP thing.

But do you agree that it's shady practice for Facebook to allow advertisers to use people's friends in ads? I mean the first time I saw those ads I thought they were authentic.

I guess the facebook crew have decided it would be far too much work to police so they've put the onus on the users clicking "yes, it is ok for this application to access my and my friends' details for any reason". I too dislike those ads and I dislike that, no matter how tight my security settings are, my info is still visible to my friends and thus visible to my friends' spammy applications.

But yeah anyway, I would've thought someone at the Vodafone office might realise that rampant advertising spam money subscription schemes actually hurt the customers and discourage the customers from spending money on the Vodafone network. Evidently there is more profit going into someone's pocket when this is allowed to continue.

[Newsboy]

Originally Posted by Mriceguy

Yeah will have to try the reply with STOP thing.

But do you agree that it's shady practice for Facebook to allow advertisers to use people's friends in ads? I mean the first time I saw those ads I thought they were authentic.

Incredibly dodgy. If my face was being used (and probably) to advertise for someone, I'd want to be paid for it.

[sweetasman01]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

Incredibly dodgy. If my face was being used (and probably) to advertise for someone, I'd want to be paid for it.

Read facebbooks terms and conditions, by signing up you give them the right to use ANY of your pictures in advertisments for FREE.

[zach]

It's ironic how fools get scammed when trying to find out their IQ.

[BorDAr]

Originally Posted by zach

It's ironic how fools get scammed when trying to find out their IQ.

lol yes, very ironic