That Google+ Invite May Be Spam: Sophos

Facebook might have its fair share of spam, but newly launched Google+, the social networking service is not being spared. Just days after its launch, it’s under attack by spammers, Sophos reports. The spam isn’t on Google+, but in the form of e-mails. Google+ isn’t currently open to public, but requires someone with an account to invite you to it. These invites are received by e-mail and spammers have chosen to dress up their e-mails as Google invites. The users awaiting an invite blindly click on them are they are directed to spam sites. Sophos has shown examples where users are led to a pharmacy web site. In the specific example, the site seems to offer cheap drugs as part of a July 4th promotion.

Anything to get on the new service

Sophos has created an account on Google+ called Naked Security, which is the Google+ presence of their security blog. It’s clear that scammers go to any extent to attract people to their sites. What’s even more surprising is that these fake e-mails aren’t marked as spam by popular mail providers.