Ping.fm Offering Spammers Full Privilege

As reported by Media Post News on July 20, 2009, Facebook and Twitter accounts of David Szetela, founder and CEO of PPC ad agency Clix Marketing, had been used in circulating spam e-mails in the third week of July 2009.

Szetela said that his Facebook friends and over 25,000 Twitter users were sent spam messages using his accounts.

This news came up on July 18, 2009 when Szetela was on his way to Chicago. Szetela got a Twitter message sent by one of the friends warning him that his account on Facebook might have been hacked. Then he checked for his Twitter account and to his surprise he found a message posted on his account with an ad for SAT/LSAT exam preparation service.

This was not an end to this scam. When on the night of July 18, 2009 Szetela went on checking his Ping.fm account, he found an even lengthy message was posted there. It seems as if messages were sent via Ping.fm, which serves as a social network aggregator allowing members to post messages circulated on social networking websites such as Facebook, Plaxo, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.

Then, on July 20, 2009, he received another warning from some other friend that the same thing had occurred again. Corresponding to this alert, he changed the password of his Ping.fm account.

It is currently the topic of debate among the security experts as some of them are arguing that it might be a hacker's act while others are saying that this problem might have commenced due to the presence of an e-mail virus in the e-mail account of Szetela.

Szetela, however, said that the unfortunate spam incident happened two times and that was through Ping.fm. Moreover, he noted that it had not occurred since he altered his Ping.fm password.

Meanwhile, Sean McCullough, CEO and founder of Ping.fm recalled a similar case that emerged several months back with NBC Journalist Ann Curry. In that case, Curry's Ping.fm account was used to distribute virus, reported Media Post News on July 20, 2009.

As a security measure, Ping.fm users are advised to regularly change their password and to scan their e-mail account so as to prevent any virus from entering their e-mails.

Related article: Pinch to Create Information-stealing Trojans

» SPAMfighter News - 8/8/2009