Spammers targeting social networking sites

Social networking sites have become the new front in the war against spam, according to security watchers. In the six months leading up to March 2008, social networking sites saw a four-fold growth in the amount of spam on their network. At several major social networking sites, 30 per cent of new accounts created are automated fraudulent ‘zombie’ accounts, designed to be used for spam and other malicious attacks, according to anti-spam firm Cloudmark.

JF Sullivan, VP of marketing at Cloudmark, said the type of spam advertised through social networks is the same type as that advertised by email spam and punted by much the same people. “There’s an implicit trust in social networking. People don’t think they’re going to be attacked with spam,” Sullivan told El Reg. “People don’t trust email anymore. Spammers are following peoples’ online habits.” Mobile spam, by contrast, is sent by different group of individuals.

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