14 DAY TRIAL // Symantec's security team has noticed an invasion of adult-themed accounts on Instagram, spamming users and trying to trick them into accessing various online dating, escort and adult webcam portals, but also potentially malicious sites.
With Instagram boasting to have over 400 million users registered on their network, spammers and scammers are taking notice.
Daily Instagram users must have surely noticed by now an increase in spam on the network, with unknown users liking their photos, sending comments, or following their activity.
According to Symantec, a vast majority of these profiles are promoting adult-themed websites, but Softpedia has also noticed a large number of other services peddled from these spam accounts. These range from jewelry to tech support services and about anything else you can think of.
The purpose of these campaigns is for the spammers to make money through affiliate programs or by driving traffic to malicious websites, where they can get paid on pay-per-infection schemes.
Instagram is slowly turning into a spammer's heaven
According to Satnam Narang, Senior Security Response Manager for Symantec, who analyzed the influx of adult-themed spam accounts, most profiles follow three patterns.
The first profile type only lists a photo, a small description, and a link. The second profile type is like the first but also includes a lot of photos, always stolen from other Instagram profiles or from random sites off the Internet. The third type is a full-on ad, containing one single poster image, split into tiles, so they reconstruct the original photo on the Instagram main profile page.
While Symantec mentioned these profile types as being used for adult-themed profiles, they can be found in other spam accounts as well.
These profiles are easy to spot since most of them promote adult websites with an obvious link, display shortened URLs or links containing random-generated strings.
"Unlike previous examples that we have identified, the fake profiles on Instagram are not bots," Mr. Narang explains, saying that there doesn't seem to be any type of automated behavior behind the activity on these profiles.
Symantec advises users not to interact or visit any links promoted by these profiles, even if the spammy account interacts with them by following their profile and constantly liking photos.
