September 5, 2008 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – Spammers are abusing free services to mask redirects to dubious sites, a report by email security vendor MessageLabs suggested recently. The report mentions one service, a photo-hosting site called ImageShack, which allows users to upload photo files in a number of formats, including Flash. Flash files can redirect website visitors to other websites. Thus, a link to an ImageShack account containing a Flash file, can in fact ultimately lead to an entirely different site.
This approach affords spammers a number of advantages. Emails link to sites with good reputations, and this makes it easier for recipients to click on a spam link. Anti-spam software also often permits links to such sites as they are not regarded as spam sites. The report also suggests spammers utilize Flash in more elaborate ways. People who receive spam email often click on a link to a video and a Flash file redirects a visitor to a site where they can download a codec required to play the video file. Often malicious software is downloaded instead of a codec.
The report goes on to say that Google's Picasa photo service and Yahoo's Flickr don't allow Flash files, but are still victims of abuse as spammers use these services to host pictures that are used in spam emails. The fact that these sites have good reputations means that anti-spam software is less likely to block emails containing links to them. According to the report, MessageLabs has seen similar abuse impact the Microsoft online file storage service, Windows Live SkyDrive.
