Viagra pharma website in Google+ email invitation scam

Fake email invitations for the newly launched Google+ social networking site are leading internet surfers to pharmaceutical website.

It is thought the internet giant’s new project has become the victim of a hacking group, who are inviting people to join the social network but instead direct them to an online Viagra-selling store.

The pharmaceutical website is Canadian, leading to speculation that the hacking group is also from Canada and there are thoughts that it could be the work of the Partnerka organisation.

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The scam was uncovered by Sophos, an internet security firm who is branding the scam as ‘amateur’.

“This group is trying to lure uses to a pharmaceutical website by using Google+ invites,” explains Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos.

“The scam is still ongoing and spreading around the world,” he said, adding: “The scam is quite amateur at this stage as the link doesn’t even take the user to a Google-looking site from which the hackers could then grab personal details.

“It just takes you directly to the wrong site and most people won’t fall for it – but they should still be careful and check the identity of the person supposedly sending them the invite to join Google+.”

A trial of Google+ was launched last week and people have to be invited to join the social networking site by current users.