Snapchat, Kik, Bitly exploited in spam campaign

Washington: Symantec has found a spam campaign that manages to abuse three Web services Snapchat, Kik and Bitly at the same time.

A Symantec executive revealed that spammers have found a way to create their own links using branded short domains in order to entice users into a false sense of security, PCWorld reports.

Security response manager at Symantec disclosed this spam on a blog claiming that it all starts onSnapchat, where some users receive an unsolicited photo message asking the person to add a contact as a friend on Kik Messenger, which an instant messaging application.

After the contact is added on Kik, a spam "bot," or a program designed to automatically chat with contacts, would send some canned text and a link shortened by Bitly. The links lead to sites trying to sign up users for adult webcam entertainment.

Symantec found Bitly links generated using customs domains owned by brands and companies such as USA Today, National Geographic, the New York Post, Red Hat and MIT News, among others.