Although details of the how the phishing scam will pan out have yet to be revealed, Andy Thomas, the firm's commercial director, says that more than 460 000 Facebook users appear to have responded to the emails, which apparently exhort users to send in their name and email address to a group administrator.
But, says Thomas - "wait a minute. Some simple maths and logic says this going to cost someone over £12 million".
"That is Hooveresque in its promotional scale and we all remember what happened to them - the truth is this is a well timed, scam that plays on people's trust of the iTunes brand and love of a bargain", he said.
Calling the scam a type of social engineering in a blog entry, Thomas noted that the only gift that members will get is a nasty surprise in an email - "probably the one containing your iTunes gift."
"Or a permanent place on a phishing attack list sold much like direct marketeers buy email or physical addresses", he said.
"If you or a friend joined this list make sure they know what to expect over the next few days, weeks or months," he added.