Ok, I admit I didn’t see this one coming. What seemed like a harmless looking challenge turned into a long drawn out, 45 minutes plus of a total time waste. First thing in the morning!

Well, at least I have a much better I.Q than Dr. Einstein here. Don’t tell me you fell for the scam!

So this is how it all started, I was woken up in the morning by some ’tard’s incessant phone calls (which turned out to be a wrong number anyway) and couldn’t go back to sleep. Jeez, its like 5 AM in the morning!

So I walk in to my den, check my email, open up facebook and there … I see the “Find your IQ” ad. Now normally I would just skip ads but this one seemed so tempting. So, with no other way to kill time (cluttered mind),  I select what I think is the right answer and click.

Dang!, I don’t get my IQ, I’m at a landing page for some Mensa like page (look at the screenshot on the right)  which wants me to answer more questions. With my still groggy eyes, I approximately locate something that says “Mensa” and mumble on.. “awrighty you SOB, lets take the test …”

First Screen … 5 questions, easy on…

By the time I reach down to the last part I’m like “whoa! … there are more parts to this test? ” I look at the clock on my taskbar and then at my foggy state of mind and then … “ok what the hell…”

Turns out there were more screens and I did religiously try answering the questions as best as I could. Until finally!

Finally! I spotted a “Get Results” somewhere.

Quick glance at the clock … 5:30!! and I haven’t had tea nor smoke!
Duly noted that there was no timing  anywhere, no pop-ups, the interface was neat and clean and no hurriedness. Ok, gotta take a break. Hit that damn button and we can go make some tea baby! Hold on a sec. Why do you need my zip-code? Eh, the insurance companies need zip code too so whatever, Lets see Milpitas, Sunnyvale, Santa clara? Eh, maybe just 95055 will do. Next!

Uh, email address? no frickin’ way. Awright, maybe .. well they say they’re gonna send me the results by email “Hmmm” … pop open the disposable one time email address creator, there! Done. Hit that button and go make tea…

--- 5 minutes later ---

Whaaa?

You’ve got to be kidding me. You asked for my date of birth, okay I didn’t give the real one coz you know, I don’t even remember myself. Ha! And now you want the address? Perfect recipe for identity theft eh! Or spam or … no! I spent almost an hour, now gimme my damn results. (Don’t get confused by the screenshot, it was just an animation of IQ score varying from 1 to 200 or somethin.. like that).

Ah, found a “Skip” button …

There we go …

Okay, I’ve had my morning caffeine already and I know this sounds like I wasted my precious one hour.

Realization .. I’ve been tricked!

This is a scam, an email/address harvesting scheme.

“What’s next? You’re gonna ask me an SSN too?” Hit that damn close button.

Oops, what’s up with the close button?

Alright! that does it. I know now, what this IQ thing was all about. But, before we hit the close button, lets do one more check. Click the Privacy Policy link.

There, the privacy policy clearly states this is a SPAM address harvesting site. Well, I still managed to survive, I was smart enough not to fall into the trap heh! What does that make my IQ?

Watch out people, the world there is out to get you. Woo! So much for the trust in Google Adsense Ads.

These people  wasted an hour of mine! An hour! And I didn’t even get the results. None!