Spammers turn to Yahoo, Google Picasa groups

In what appears to be the latest twist in their cat-and-mouse game with authorities, spammers are now turning to Yahoo and Google Picasa groups to spread their messages. Computer security firm Sophos said that while anti-spam products and services filter out suspicious messages, spammers managed to get a legitimate mail provider to deliver their unwanted mail. “How do they do this? They are simply creating bogus accounts on Google Picasa, uploading a photo of their product, then ‘sharing’ this photo with a personalized spammy message," it said in a blog post. As a result, users receive spam mails from “Picasa Web Albums." Worse is the abuse of Yahoo! Groups, which Sophos noted do not even require recipients to confirm they want to subscribe, unlike other mailing lists. “Yahoo! Groups seems to have a mechanism built for the convenience of spammers, the ability to add anyone to a group without their permission," it said. “Every time the spammer wants to reach you he can now depend on Yahoo! to send his message, digitally sign it with DKIM, have valid SPF records and successfully evade reputation-based spam filters," it added. — TJD, GMA News