Want to go for a ride? Sign up for the "Free Six Flags Tickets" spreading around Facebook right now and in no time you'll experience the G-force speeds, hair-raising turns and death-defying plunges of survey scams and potential identity theft.
The bogus "limited-time" offer, for a four-pack of tickets to your nearest outpost of the amusement park, prompts you first to share the Facebook page, then add a thank you comment below it, Facecrooks' scam-sniffing watchdogs report.
"If you did make the mistake of sharing the scam link, then you are now spamming your friends with the very same message," Facecrooks wrote.
For those behind the scam, the payoff comes in the next step, when victims are taken to a legitimate-looking Facebook spoof page and told that in order to claim the free tickets, they must take a quick survey. The offer goes a (buttery and delicious) step further: The survey, along with getting you those tickets, could qualify you for a Dodge Challenger or free lunches for a year at Chick-fil-A.
As with all suspicious Facebook offers and surveys, no matter how delicious or exciting it sounds, you should never pursue it. This particular ticket scam may be just a social networking inconvenience, but many similar surveys are loaded with malware or are out to siphon your email address and credit card number or sign you up for expensive text message subscriptions you never asked for.
Arm yourself against potentially dangerous Facebook scams by running anti-malware software on your computer. If you fall for tricks like the phony Six Flags offer or similar promises, remove any references to the scam from your newsfeed and profile — and never fill out any surveys.