WordPress comments lead to fake profiles on LinkedIn
April 15, 2009 2 Comments
Although it has nothing to do with real spam, it caught my attention when managing the MX Lab blog. When reading some comments I noticed that the provided URL was leading to a LinkedIn profile. Some examples below.
New comment on your post #125 “Email pollution and spam to think about”
Author : Heartburn Home Remedy (IP: 92.112.90.181 , 181-90-112-92.pool.ukrtel.net)
E-mail : vin45ce45622@gmail.com
URL : http://www.linkedin.com/in/heartburnhomeremedy
Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=92.112.90.181
Comment:I read your blog for quite a long time and must tell that your posts are always valuable to readers.
And this one
New comment on your post #230 “Nice Citibank phishing attempt example”
Author : How to Get Six Pack Fast (IP: 92.112.81.15 , 15-81-112-92.pool.ukrtel.net)
E-mail : vincedel422@gmail.com
URL : http://www.linkedin.com/in/howtogetasixpackfast
Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=92.112.81.15
Comment:After reading this article, I just feel that I need more info. Can you suggest some resources ?
When visiting the URL it leads us to the fake LinkedIn profile.
Notice the three web site links in the profile. They lead to http://bit.ly which is a URL shortener & tracking service.
Following sites appear when visiting some links, obviously very commercial.
Be carefull when using or visiting sites that are being promoted through a URL shortening and tracking service. Because of the fact that the URL is so short and no details are visible about the real URL, it is possible that you could end up visiting sites that host malware or are phishing sites. It’s a very common technique to lure the surfer.
Funny! I’ve been receiving “comments” from this guy all morning! I DID check the linkedin url, but did not click on any of the links that appeared. I’m so glad to come across your entry, but still a bit confused. Do you think my computer is at risk for malware, now?
> Do you think my computer is at risk for malware, now?
No, not at all. These fake profiles lead to commercial web sites.
But, as mentioned in the post, the difficulty lies in the fact that the URL is shortened and therefore not visible directly. Just be more carefull when you encounter such URLs.