Spammers create as many as 40 percent of the accounts on social-media sites
‘Likejacking’: Spammers Hit Social Media
By Olga Kharif on May 24, 2012
Michelle Espinoza thought a single photo was going to ruin her business. It was an image of one of the pearl cuff bracelets she designs that showed up on Pinterest, a site where users create virtual bulletin boards, grouping images in categories—whether it be chocolate desserts or bohemian jewelry. For 10 days in April, anybody who clicked on the photo ended up watching pornography or unwittingly downloading a virus. “I can’t gauge how many customers I lost,” says Espinoza, a resident of Santa Rosa Beach, Fla. “But I did have people messaging me asking, ‘Are you linked to spam?’ I was just distraught.”
https://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-24/likejacking-spammers-hit-social-media
