Cyber conmen take advantage of Apple iPad craze

Cyber conmen have been pouncing on the opportunity to steal netizens' personal and valuable information by twisting the craze surrounding the recent launch of Apple's iPad in their favour.

Scammers were said to be subverting search engines to steal vital data of those seeking information about the tablet computer, reports The BBC.

Symantec researcher Joji Hamada warned browsers stumbling upon rogue links against being re-directed to booby-trapped websites that scan their computer for personal data.

Methusela Ferrer of software firm CA said she had seen the interest in the iPad being manipulated by so-called "scraper sites" that often sell their services to cyber criminals who create viruses and code to exploit vulnerabilities in browsers and other programs.