Think you've been given the chance to sign up as an iPad tester via Facebook? Not a chance mate! Its a nasty little scam which will end up with you being sign to a premium rate mobile service. This warning is coming from Sophos, the Internet security people.

According to Sophos here is how the scam is worked: Here's how it works. 1) You are invited to "Become a Fan" of the page; 2) "Invite your friends" to also become fans of the page, and take part in the "special promotion" 3) "Claim" or "Apply" for your prize.

Some of the pages pretend to have thousands of positive comments from other Facebook users claiming that the offer is genuine, Sophos notes. And it's also running on Twitter - so beware there of people or accounts offering "Free Apple iPad!" or similar. Bit of a clue here is that Apple haven't actually started to sell the Ipad and won't until April.

When the victim applies for the prize they are typically taken to an online quiz, and their mobile phone number is requested so they can be sent the results. Doing that will sign you up for a premium rate service, costing you in the region of £8 every week. The scammers who created the fake iPad Facebook pages are undoubtedly skimming off some of this money by bringing new unwitting subscribers to the cellphone service.

If something looks too good to be true then generally it is. This has been a public service information blog. :-)

Here's a Youtube video on the subject.