Google Groups Riddled with Malicious Links

[Peaches]

Google Groups Riddled with Malicious Links

Remnants of holiday rogue AV spam

Security researchers warn that a scareware distribution campaign that started before the winter holidays on Google Groups is still affecting users. Rogue shortened URLs redirect unwary visitors to websites aggressively pushing fake antivirus software. It seems that the scareware cyber-criminal business model is as profitable in 2010 as it was in 2009.

One particular distribution campaign targets Google Groups users, who are enticed into visiting tens of thousands of links to fake online videos. "The users sending out the spam messages all use free Gmail accounts (one even named his spam account Santa Claus), and have been requesting access to both open-membership and closed-membership Groups, the latter of which require an administrator's approval. Once added to a group's member list, the spam accounts post brief messages [...] with a link," Andrew Brandt, a threat expert with antivirus vendor Webroot, http://blog.webroot.com/2010/01/08/spammers-pushing-rogues-infiltrate-google-groups/"]warns.

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