Proof that scammers are not always in touch with the news.  A recent scam has been emailed to would be victims which offers  exclusive access to subscribe to Facebook’s IPO shares.

Symantec Security Response recently spotted a 419 scam message offering a "FACEBOOK (IPO) SUBSCRIPTION PARTNERSHIP PROPOSAL". The use of an all uppercase heading is a common hallmark of such 419 scams but really the content is the most amusing. This scam claims to be sent from a finance firm with offices in multiple locations worldwide. The exact nature of the scam is unclear. The scam mentions loaning money under "soft" or generous terms to buy Facebook shares and then selling them back to the finance firm at a price higher than the original purchase price.

Now the problem is that when the scammers were developing their plan they no doubt thought the Facebook IPO would be a winner. However it turned out to be a huge turd which is sinking faster than the Titanic. You would have to be an even bigger moron to fall for this scam than the usual victims of the 419 scams just on that basis alone.

The letter is amateurish-looking address at a common free Web-based email provider. A legitimate company would almost certainly use an email address from its own domain rather than a free Web-based address. The email address and name in the "From" header of the message are also different to the email address and name used in the message body.

Symantec expects scammers to take advantage of the Facebook IPO  in the same way that they have taken advantage of previous news stories and events. The would be better off trying to contact those who had bought Facebook shares with a get rich scheme buying something a little better.