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Government Spam United States IT

Spammers Using Shortened .gov URLs 75

hypnosec writes "Cyber-scammers have started using '1.usa.gov' links in their spam campaigns in a bid to fool gullible users into thinking that the links they see on a website or have received in their mail or newsletter are legitimate U.S. Government websites. Spammers have created these shortened URLs through a loophole in the URL shortening service provided by bit.ly. USA.gov and bit.ly have collaborated, enabling anyone to shorten a .gov or .mil URL into a 'trustworthy' 1.usa.gov URL. Further, according to an explanation provided by HowTo.gov, creating these usa.gov short URLs does not require a login." Which might not be a big deal, except that the service lets through URLs with embedded redirects, and it is to these redirected addresses that scammers are luring their victims.
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Spammers Using Shortened .gov URLs

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  • 2*WTF (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 21, 2012 @07:24AM (#41720819)

    Isn't the major WTF in the second stage of the "attack", a .gov site that will happy redirect to _any_ site feed to its (link) script? Obviously the .gov shortening will help in the "attack" on people that do not click everything they see.

  • Re:2*WTF (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 21, 2012 @08:52AM (#41721065)

    I would guess that LinkClick.aspx was created to track outbound links from the site.
    That way they can easily create statistics on what links people click on.

    It is a lazy way to do it to avoid having to keep track of which links you want to track.
    Everyone does it, even google search. Although some are doing it in a good way and keep track of what they allow to redirect, not just allow anything.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 21, 2012 @09:01AM (#41721105)

    I've been getting spams from IRS.gov. First the content doesn't apply to me, and they are grammatically incorrect. But I can see somebody being fooled. The URL is .irs.gov/get action.aspx. Seeing IRS.gov makes it seem real. Knowing better stops me from clicking the link (but I want to, just to see what it does).

    I thought it might be a SQL injection hack. Great, now there are more .gov attacks, built by the govt.

    What will they think of next?

  • Re:2*WTF (Score:4, Interesting)

    by hymie! ( 95907 ) on Sunday October 21, 2012 @09:20AM (#41721189)

    Websites seriously implement such a warning?

    Yes. Go to the IRS web site http://www.irs.gov . At the bottom right, where it says "Visit Other Sites", click on "U. S. Treasury" (which, by the way, is the parent organization of the IRS).

If I set here and stare at nothing long enough, people might think I'm an engineer working on something. -- S.R. McElroy

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