Pinterest Virus? Scams & Hoaxes Invade Pin Boards

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Pinterest Scams and Hoaxes

Facebook and twitter are known to be hounded by scams, hoaxes and spread of malicious links. As the online pinboard site Pinterest becomes more popular and along with a considerable growth in the
number of its users, however, cybercrooks start flooding hoaxes and survey scams in Pinterest.

Pinterest Spam

Scammers start to use the same tactics they employ in Facebook and twitter to lure Pinterest users to visit survey pages. They use freebies as bait.

“Starbucks is giving away free giftcards to all Pinterest users”

Comments with links to a supposed page giving away free Starbucks gift cards have been spotted in popular pins. Variations if this free Starbucks coffee gift cards are expected to increase as more people join Pinterest.

If you are a Pinterest or Pinspire user, be wary and cautious of pinned images or comments with links that promise freebies. Pinterest and Pinspire may be new but this does not mean that scammers will spare these sites from scams and hoaxes. This, considering the impressive growth and potentials if these sites.

Pinterest Security: How to Deal with Pinterest Scams and Spam

1. If you see a spam in boards, make sure to flag this as spam. To do this, click the suspicious pin/image and click the “report pin” button. See image below:

2. If somebody left a spammy comment in your pin, make sure to delete this comment to spare other pinners from visiting misleading links. To do this, simply click the x button beside the spammy comment.

3. Warn friends about Pinterest spam and hoaxes, pin or share this post.