Spammers Now Using TinyURL to Avoid Spam Filters - 2,219 Views, 4 Comments
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Spammers are now cloaking their website domains in their spam by abusing the TinyURL service. TinyURL is a service which allows you to enter a gawd-awful long URL, and turn it into a, well, tiny URL, which then forwards to the gawd-awful long one. But now spammers are abusing the service, using a TinyURL link to their website in their spam, rather than their true website link, presumably so that their website domain doesn’t get blocked by anti-spam services - or even because their website domain is already being blocked by anti-spam services. In some instances, the TinyURL service is being used as a conduit for affiliate spam - where the affiliate cloaks their affiliate link with the TinyURL - this has the added creep factor of not only cloaking the domain of the program the affiliate is spamming for, but helping that domain avoid detection as having their affiliate program work with spammers (which can carry harsh penalties under the Federal anti-spam law, CAN-SPAM). Take, for example, this spam below. Note the TinyURL link, which we have bolded here for your reading ease - it resolves to http://www.advanced-intelligence.com/index.html?2735 - that 2735 at the end is almost certainly an affiliate identifier. Sorry, Advanced-Intelligence.com Affiliate #2735, no sale today!: “I was recently reviewing Spy Gadgets sites in some of the major search engines and I came across your web site: Theinternetpatrol.com. Out of all the sites I came across yours really stood out for me and If you could please spare me just two minutes I have a business proposition for you as you are in the same market as I am. After reviewing your site I found that we are both targeting the exact same market, though we are not in competition with each other. I have been studying this target market for quite some time and would like to present you with the opportunity to increase your income for five minutes work. You will be provided with the marketing materials, all you need do is send out an email to your ezine list or add a graphic to your web site, and you can make money. You can do this by signing up to the affiliate program found here: http://tinyurl.com/2kntfq By promoting this product you can earn a commission without ever having to handle customer service or ship any products. It’s a fantastic way to make money pretty much out of By working together, we have the potential to create an additional revenue source for both of us — without investing any money or even any time. Because we share the same target I offer this partnership very selectively, so please do act fast if you wish to go ahead with this. Also please feel free to email me if you have any questions. Finally, Anne I know you’re a busy person and I’d like to thank you for reading this email whether you choose to promote and make some extra cash or not. Keep up the good work! By the way, you’ll be paid on the 1st of each month. http://tinyurl.com/2kntfq Daniel Lee P.S. I hope you don’t mind me emailing you it’s just your web site really stood out from the others I came across during my research.
Follow Anne on Twitter
thin air!
market, your customers are guaranteed to be interested in the product. An affiliate arrangement is a surefire way to make that interest work to our mutual benefit. To sign up to this affiliate program visit: http://tinyurl.com/2kntfq
Sincerely,
Previous Article « Plot Thickens as FIFTH Undersea Internet Cable Outage Reported and Iran Taken Offline
Read Next Article » Scam Identity Theft Calls to Cell Phones Tout Expiring Auto Warranty, Coming from 408-587-2116 and 623-238-6228
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» Over 100,000 Sources of Spam and Other Malware Detected in Any Given Hour - Many Zombies
» An Explanation of the Different Types of Spam Filters
» Aunty Spam’s Big Book of Spam Filters
» Network World Fusion Tests 41 Spam Filters, Here are the Results
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I am receiving Spam using Blogspot to make it look legitimate’
Example:
All best medicines.
http://sh..ge.blogspot.com
Secure purchase, online.
(I removed the middle of the Blogspot link to make it unusable)
Comment by Bill Minns — 3/6/2008 @ 7:25 am
This is one reason why I almost never click on a TinyURL link. You have NO way of knowing where one of these links will take you.
Comment by Joe Papa — 3/6/2008 @ 8:53 pm
I think what is most telling about this e-mail is that NOWHERE does he mention what the product is that he’s trying to sell?
What kind of marketing is that? Suspicious to say the least. Ineffective to say the most.
T
Comment by Turalia — 3/6/2008 @ 9:03 pm
Joe Papa, not everybody who uses a tinyurl link is a spammer.
Not clicking on a tinyurl link just because it is a tinyurl link … it’s a completely wrong approach.
Comment by AdsMarket — 3/7/2008 @ 2:51 pm