Scammers are finding new ways to dupe customers, and are now preying upon customers hungry for Apple Inc.’s much-sought-after iPad, the Better Business Bureau announced in a press release.

The iPad launched amid much fanfare last weekend, and Apple reported Monday it sold more than 300,000 iPads, users had downloaded more than 1 million applications from its app store and more than 250,000 ebooks from its iBookstore.

“It feels great to have the iPad launched into the world — it’s going to be a game changer,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in a release.

Game changer for consumers and businesses, perhaps, but for scammers it’s just fresh new territory.

Amid the rush and high demand, scammers were taking advantage of eager shoppers by sending e-mail offers to become testers of the new iPad. One scam sent victims to testitandkeepit.com, which claimed it was looking for people to test the iPad for a couple of months, and as compensation you could keep the iPad. Another scam on Facebook was designed to trick people into signing up for a cell phone subscription, rather then test the iPad and keep it like the page suggested.

“What’s past is prologue, and it was inevitable that scammers would take advantage of the excitement over the iPad to rip people off, just like they did with the iPod and the iPhone,” said BBB spokeswoman Alison Southwick in a release.

McAfee Inc. also reported that spam e-mails are entering inboxes offering iPads, but users must first buy other items and provide a credit card number.

“Bogus offers most commonly claim you can become a tester or researcher and get an iPad for free,” Southwick said. “This is a deal that sounds, and definitely is, too good to be true.”