Google used to create credible spam links?

Researchers at Trend Micro security have found a trend in spam messages that use google's "I'm feeling lucky" button feature.

The spam will contain links that try to look harmless by starting off with http://www.google.com/search?, this is followed by the keywords that will produce the spammers required result from google's "I'm feeling lucky" button.

These links can seem credible, as Trend Micro say "after all, who doesn’t trust Google?", people may be led to believe that these links are harmless. However, instead of returning a list of google search results, the link will directly open the site that google ranks as number one for the keywords at the end of the link.

An example of the type of link spammers could use is

example of the type of link spammers could use

The trick that they use with this type of link is the “btn,” the equivalent of clicking the I’m Feeling Lucky button found on Google’s search page. Using this button, Google redirects the user to the first Web page it had ranked as most relevant to the provided search query, instead of displaying the usual search listing.

Malware authors just need to make sure that their site gets first place on Google rankings for those keywords.

"Google and other unofficial “cheat sheets” document the array of advanced search functionalities built into the search engine. However, these functionalities may also be used by spammers to inject credibility into their spamming attempts." say Trend micro.

Luckily most anti virus and malware programs are able to block malicious content on Web pages, you should still not click on links offered in spammed messages, even if they look trustworthy enough.

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