Instagram Users Suffer From Major Fruit-Spam Attack

Over the last day or so, there has been an overwhelming posting of fruit-themes images on Instagram. However, before you try to figure out if it’s the World Fruit Day, it is actually a spam that has hit the photo-sharing site. Apparently, the perpetrators of the spam steal users’ login credentials and then post these images from their accounts.


Instagram

It is still unclear how the attackers have been able to lay their hands on the login credentials of so many users. Once the spammers get hold of the credentials, they start posting fruit-themes images from the account.

Along with these images, the text accompanying them includes a Bitly hyperlink which essentially takes a user to a fake BBC page. The page is a promotional pitch for a weight-loss coffee which, for all we know, may not even be a real product.

Every spam fruit-themed image that is shared on Instagram contains content which reads something like this, “Ever seen this stuff? I guess its super healthy, im giving it a try. I saw it on Dr Oz’s show! Link is in my bio #lovemyfollowers #health.”

However, Bitly has now taken initiative against the spam and is warning the users who try to access the fake page. It is possible that by clicking on the spam link, users credentials are somehow compromised and that’s how the spammers are able to further expand the scope of their spam. Instagram hasn’t taken any official action on this yet, so we are waiting for the official word from the team.

Courtesy: PC Mag

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Salman

Salman Latif is a software engineer with a specific interest in social media, big data and real-world solutions using the two.Other than that, he is a bit of a gypsy. He also writes in his own blog. You can find him on Google+ and Twitter .

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