Spammers exploit YouTube servers in latest attack
Spammers have tapped into YouTube and are using its servers to send out massive quantities of spam, reports email and Internet content security provider Marshal
According to the Marshal TRACE team, the spammers are using YouTube’s own “Invite Your Friends” system to send large quantities of spam from genuine YouTube servers. The messages all come from This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
In August, spammers used a Trojan to automatically generate large numbers of Hotmail and Gmail accounts. Bradley Anstis, Marshal’s Director of Product Management, explains that this YouTube spam plays on a similar principal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zSeBhImRkk&feature=dir
“YouTube users have a facility where they can invite their friends to view videos that they are looking at or have posted. This effectively allows them to email to any address from their YouTube account. This is the functionality that the spammers are exploiting,” says Anstis.
The messages have the same appearance as a legitimate YouTube invite, except they include typical spam content and links to spam Web sites.
“Spammers are doing this to defeat spam filters and to lower the recipient’s guard by making it look as though the messages are coming from a perfectly innocuous email address. YouTube’s own Help Centre suggests that you exclude the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. email address from spam filtering. The spammers are keenly aware of this,” says Anstis.