News

Tricksters getting testy with IQ scams

Trend Micro has reported on the proliferation of spam using IQ tests as a lure.

2 Sep 2010

Spam advertising IQ tests over instant messaging services has spiked and scammers are using some smart sales techniques, a security firm has warned.

In one case, the spam message asked the user to click through to partake in a test, which had 11 questions in total, noted Trend Micro fraud analyst Christopher Talampas.

The purported service then prompted the potential victim to sign up and provide a mobile phone number to get the actual results.

Looking down at the Summary of Terms at the bottom of the page, Talampas read that by giving the quiz's creators their phone number, users signed up to a "mobile content subscription."

The subscription fee ranged from $9.99$19.99 a month, Talampas noted in a blog, and this led the researcher to leave the site immediately.

He added: "One may ask why the site would need a mobile phone number just to send IQ test results. Will they use this information to spam me through my mobile phone? Nor is it clear if the answers to the questions actually matter to the IQ score' given to the user, if they actually receive one."

Cyber criminals have been using varying sales tricks of late. A new Trojan was recently spotted by Sunbelt Software, which offered a comparison of anti-virus services.

The products that appeared to do the best jobs turned out to be rogue anti-virus products.