Spammers are Switching to Blogs and Instant Messaging

This in from Blog Bloke. Like as if blogger.com users don’t already know this.

According to a new report spammers are changing to mobile text messaging, blogs, instant messaging, and social-networking sites to deliver their unsolicited sales pitches.

Old-style e-mail spam, the report indicated, has lost some momentum as the most popular medium for unsolicited commercial messages as spammers have turned their attention to newer communications channels.

Blogs, for example, have become a quagmire of comments posted by spammers that contain links to “disposable spam domains,” MessageLabs found.

Spammers have started using social-networking sites such as MySpace to create phony, yet convincing, profiles containing links to “automated instant messaging ‘chat-bot’ sirens” that entice unwary MySpacers to “lucrative webcam sites” and then either advertise their wares or attempt to plant spyware on their computers.

In addition, the spammers are using bait in the form of “friend requests” that are generated by special software to target online profiles in large numbers, the report said.

More fine reading at Newsfactor.