Snapchat users have been affected by spam-type advertising campaigns in the past, but this time the spamming was based on the new way of exchanging text (chatting) that Snapchat last May.
From the moment the new method of exchanging written messages allowed link exchange only between friends, spammers changed the accounts in order to facilitate message exchange between them.
Satnam Nanrang of Symantecsays that URLs containing the phrase “groupon.com” were designed to redirect potential victims into believing they would see discounted products from the Groupon website.
“Compromised Snapchat accounts were sending a photo of the fruit Garcinia Cambogia, which was followed by a message that contained the link of “groupon.com” inside the URL”, reports Narang.
From Snapchat's side, it is confirmed that the accounts used for spreading fake advertisements have been limited, and advice is provided to service users so that they create more complex passwords to use the Snapchat service securely.
Nevertheless, as it appears, the blame for the incident comes from other websites, since users who use the same password across many internet applications have more vulnerable accounts, and the general advice to them is to use a different account for each service or application they use.
