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Spammers Shield Junk With Google Docs
David Utter
Staff Writer
2008-06-17
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
Another tool in the arsenal of spammers comes courtesy of a well-meaning service from Google.
 | | Spammers Shield Junk With Google Docs |  |
Criminals repeatedly show they will take advantage of whatever is given to them. The latest example comes from the use of Google Docs as part of a spamming campaign.
Security vendor McAfee said spammers have been using Google Docs for simple hosting of their messages. Their spam contains links to a Google Doc, which likely doesn't get picked up as a possible spam site by security software.
On arriving, the visitor finds the usual junk message and its enticements to spend money on pharmaceuticals, penny stocks, or whatever the flavor of the week is from the spammers. McAfee isn't finding much of this spam so far, with only a little over 500 messages linking back to a Google Docs page.
However, with Google as part of the domain name, people may be inclined to trust a link they normally should ignore and delete as quickly as possible.
We've seen another example of Google's good name being co-opted by criminals for their gain. The 'Feeling Lucky' button takes a person doing a search query to the top result for their request.
Spammers created sites that would be the only response to a given, exact query on Google. They could create a link through the Feeling Lucky option that presents the visitor with a list of Google search results, of which only their crafted link appears.
In a spam, the link to that "Google search result" arrives at a perfectly legitimate page. Clicking through the link sends the visitor to the spammer's site; it could lead to an attempt to scam someone with a penny stock pump-and-dump, or even lead to a possible malware infection.
Security pros should remind people that an unsolicited email, even with a safe-looking link included, should be treated like any other suspicious message, by deleting it immediately.
About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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