Spams Sent Via YouTube

A YouTube feature meant to help people share videos has become a tool for spammers to send their junk mail. The spam attack is based largely in the U.S., said security experts.

The spammers go to the “Invite Your Friends” feature in YouTube and put spam messages in that portion of the form where the sender can include a personal note to accompany the invitation. Since the message will bear the innocuous service@youtube.com email address, the recipient is likely to lower their defenses and go on to read the message.

The junk message actually invites recipients to proceed to a singles website or to another site where they can download a copy of a popular Xbox video game for free.

Users are likely to suspect nothing. YouTube in fact encourages those who currently do not get shared videos from their friends to remove the service@youtube.com address from their spam filters to ensure they will get notified. All of the videos shared through YouTube originate from this harmless-looking address.

Technically, it is not the spammers that are sending out the messages. The email has legitimacy to it and it is not being delivered through a zombie computer. It is the YouTube servers that are distributing the email.

Computer security experts noticed the spamming spike over the weekend. When the unsuspecting user follows the link, and the latest patches have updated their computers, a storm worm exploit code is activated. Once they are fully patched, the malware routes them to a section that requests the user to manually run the code.

Security researchers said that the storm worm has been the cause of a dramatic increase in spam traffic that started in January. The current attempt to spread it through a fake YouTube video is only the latest attempt. Once a PC is compromised, the storm worm adds the unit to its network of bots.

The rationale for pouncing on the YouTube help facility is to overcome the spam filters on users’ computers. It is likely to get through the filters since the email address may already be removed from the spam filter list. And, since the junk mail comes from a reputable company, it is likely to be opened.

Experts said while the ploy may get the spammers through spam filters, the chances of creating a cash cow are much less. The message may seem convincing but the link provided is not clickable; it has to be typed in manually.

Safety Tip
* Ignore the message if it invites you to go to a singles website or proposes a free download of a video game.

* Avoid typing in the link provided.