Facebook scammers have wasted little time in exploiting news of the death of Apple founder Steve Jobs as a theme for survey scams.

The conmen's marks are told that an unnamed firm is giving away 50 iPads in memory of Cupertino's billionaire gadget baron. Applicants are invited to complete an online survey to "qualify" for the fondleslab prize.

The offer is, of course, entirely bogus. Even so, more than 15,000 people have already clicked through to the bogus survey site, net security firm Sophos reports.

Survey scams work by conning punters into handing over personal details and completing questionnaires in exchange for non-existent offers. In some cases marks are induced to sign up for premium-rate text messaging services of dubious value (eg, daily horoscopes). Those peddling the scam earn affiliate revenues from unscrupulous marketing firms.

A full write-up of the ghoulish skullduggery – complete with screenshots of the bogus invite and jump page – can be found on Sophos's Naked Security blog here. ®