Pharmacy spam disguised as Google+ invites

Scammers have wasted little time in exploiting the launch of Google+ to mount a spam campaign ultimately designed to promote penis pills and other unlicensed pharmaceutical sales from dodgy websites.

Supposed Google+ invitations intercepted by net security firm Sophos last weekend actually point to online pharmacies. The messages look similar to genuine Google+ invites but clicking on the links leads to sites selling Viagra and Cialis rather than an opportunity to connect via Google's nascent social networking site.

Quite who would decide to buy Viagra from a random site in these circumstances is unclear but cybercrooks obviously reckon the ploy is worth a punt. The sites spamvertised are offering a special July 4 (US Independence Day) promotion.

Google+ opened its door on an invitation-only basis on June 28. Members were allowed to invite their friends to join the site for a short time around a day after the launch until Google suspended the feature, citing extreme demand. The suspension of the invitation feature may have contributed to increasing the potency of last weekend's spam campaign.

A full write-up of the scam, reckoned to be the first of its type to target Google+, can be found in a blog post by Sophos here. ®