Users of Google’s social network and Dropbox’s popular free cloud storage service should be aware of attempts by adult dating sites to lure them into joining up, using seemingly legitimate notifications from these services. Internet security giant Symantec, the company behind the Norton range of Internet security software, has issued a warning that emails notifications sent by Dropbox and Google+ may not always be as harmless as they at first appear. In the text of the rogue notifications, recipients are encouraged to click a link with the suggestion that should they do so, they will be able to get in touch with a beautiful young lady who is keen to meet them.
The use of email notifications from such reputable services enables the senders to bypass otherwise effective spam filters and reach their intended targets. The end goal is, as always, financial gain: recipients who actually click on the links in question are then encouraged to sign up with affiliate sites who normally charge a subscription fee for membership. To entice as many men as possible into clicking the links, photographs of attractive females are embedded in the messages.
Symantec notes a growing trend in this area, with more spammers starting to abuse legitimate notification systems, and warns people to exercise due caution when clicking on any links that such notifications may contain. As with most things in life, if you receive an offer via email that appears to be too good to be true, it most probably is.