Pinterest

Have you heard about the latest social networking phenomena, Pinterest?  It now the number 3 social network site in the United States and has a user base of 13 million globally.  Pinterest allows people to use a virtual billboard to “pin” photos of their interests. They have a section called Pin Etiquette with the guidelines for their site. One of their guidelines is no nude photographs, hateful comments or content that encourages hurtful behavior. Pinterest prohibits anyone under the age of 13 to use or have access to an account. User need to be aware that the service can be linked to a third party website. The user clicks or re-pin on the image they like and is linked to another party’s website which may or may not contain appropriate materials.

A recent scam on Pinterest shows a fake advertisement/promotion that users click on or re-pin and then the user gets redirected a few times to a survey to fill out.  This seemingly great offer for a discounted service or product will first ask users for personal information. This type of scam is very common across all social networks. Another scam happening on Pinterest is a person created automated Pinterest bots. They are downloadable pieces of software that log into the network and pin images linked to the spammer’s Amazon Affiliate account. Every time an honest Pinterest user clicks the pin and buys the linked product, the spammer makes a few bucks’ commission. And if that is not enough, the person is now selling these bots to others to make even more money.