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In April, cybercriminals were seen exploiting users of major social networking sites so that you can spread malware and spam surveys, in accordance with GFI Software. “In the same way that the popularity of social networking sites means they are a widely accepted tool for businesses to succeed in customers and elevate brand awareness, in addition, it attracts cybercriminals seeking a large pool of captive users being targeted for malware and spam attacks,” said Christopher Boyd, senior threat researcher at GFI Software.“Established sites like Facebook and Twitter have long been an atmosphere for new cyber-attacks, the good news is there has been scammers taking an interest in the recognition of newer sites like Pinterest in order to catch victims off guard and trick them into simply clicking something they shouldn’t,” Boyd added.Twitter users were the quarry of cybercriminals trying to distribute fake antivirus applications throughout a particularly vicious spam run, which tweeted a hyperlink labeled “must-see” from numerous compromised accounts and spam-bots. Followers unlucky enough to click on the links were directed to a website contaminated with an imitation antivirus program.

Once installed, the program constantly alerted users their machine was infected and requested payment to wash up the system. The next day, additional links used the Blackhole exploit kit to contaminate victims’ machines with malware before automatically sending these phones a website that has been hosting another scareware program called “Windows Antivirus Patch.”Twitter have also been used as a platform to consider good thing about users on Pinterest, a social networking site which is rapidly gaining interest. A spam campaign using the account “Pinterestdep” claimed being offering Visa gift cards to users ready to provide their opinions about Pinterest.Instead of being forwarded to an individual feedback form, victims were delivered to a website which required them to complete up to 11 reward offers and to refer three friends to do this too. Scammers also took advantage of Tumblr users who mistakenly entered “Tublr” to their internet browser when wanting to access the popular micro-blogging site and redirected these phones an email that claimed the victim ended up selected as a “daily winner.” Like the scam on Pinterest, the victim ended up being motivated to complete surveys or complete other offers in order to claim the prize.In the rehash of a popular lure used previously on Facebook, scammers tricked users into installing an imitation application which promised to demonstrate them a listing of people who had viewed their profile. The applying did little more than tag the victim’s friends inside a spam image to be able to spread the fake application among their best social networking sites 2012 and serve all of them with surveys that generate affiliate cash for your scammer.

“With countless studies being released which point out the regularity that users are visiting their favorite social networking sites, it ought to come as no real surprise that cybercriminals see these sites as prime targets for their attacks while they check out reach as numerous people as possible,” continued Boyd.