BANGALORE, INDIA: IT security and control firm Sophos has warned Apple's Ping users  to be on their guard against scammers and spammers.

Ping is Apple's musical social network built into the latest version of iTunes, iTunes 10.

Also Read: Ping creating friction between Apple Facebook

Ping, which was only launched this week, is a cross-between Facebook and Twitter, giving over 160 million iTunes users the ability to build networks of friends and musicians.

However, Sophos researchers have found that Ping is being over-run by scams and spam messages, some of which try and direct users into believing that they will receive free iPhone if they complete online surveys.

"We're used to survey scams like this being spread far and wide via sites like Facebook, but clearly the lack of filtering on Ping is making it a brand new playground for the bad guys to operate in," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant, Sophos.

He adds that it's ironic that the most common scams on Ping right now revolve around Apple's own iPhone. It's safe to assume that Ping does incorporate some rudimentary filtering to prevent offensive messages from being posted, so hopefully Apple's security team can extend this to also block scam messages and malicious links.