Are Spammers Really Using Google Groups to Spread Spam and Malware?
The anti-spam company MailChannels has released a report claiming that spammers are using thousands of Google Groups in order to spread their spam and malware. The following list presents five steps that explain how this system really works: • The spammer sets up a new group. In the majority of cases the name of the group is chosen randomly. • The spammer now uses various Gmail accounts and post messages to the created group. Here the spammer also includes a long list of keywords that users are most likely to search for (e.g. John McCain, Barak Obama, president election). • Each spammer’s post includes a link to a URL that either directs the user to a to phishing scam or to a malware executable. • A simple Internet user who goes to Google Groups and tries to search for one of the more popular keywords will, most probably, meet the spammer’s posting(s). • This user simply clicks on the provided link without even thinking that it may be occupied by the spammer. As soon as the link is ope
