Google+ Demand Used to Spread Spam

Hackers are taking advantage of another highly publicized event to push spam on end users. In this case, Google+.

Invitations to the new service are no long available, but even though the new social networking service is in "field test mode" (meaning somewhat imcomplete), an invitation to the service is a hot item. Pharmaceutical spammers have recently begun attempting to spoof invitations to the Google+ social service to get some views of their sites.

Sophos Senior Technology Consultant Graham Cluley in a Friday blog post,

"The messages look similar to the real emails that users may receive from friends who are already members of Google+. However, clicking on the links will not take you to the new social network, but instead take you to a pharmacy website set up to sell the likes of Viagra, Cialis and Levitra. The spammers are no doubt hoping that the email will be too hard to resist for many people eager to see Google's new social network, although just how many users will be tempted to buy drugs online is a mystery."

Earlier, Google allowed Google+ participants to invite others into the service (kind of hard to set up your Circles, otherwise). However, with demand characterized as "insane," Google shut that down.

It could be worse. The links could lead an end user to malware instead. And that's something that you should be concerned about. There's no reason to believe that hackers won't start using fake Google+ invites to start planting malware on people's systems.

People are pretty desperate to get a Google+ invite. Watch what you click on.