New fraud tools turn Pinterest scams into point and click exercise Ars Technica

[nortonresearch]

http://arstechnica.com/security/2012/05/new-fraud-tools-turn-pinterest-scams-into-point-and-click-exercise/

With all the attention being showered on Pinterest lately, it was
inevitable that criminals would figure out a way to cash in on the
popular social-media pinup site. New point-and-click software
available in underground markets does just that by helping even the
most technically unsophisticated people prey on the gullibility of
other users.
A couple of toolkits analyzed by McAfee researcher Hardik Shah allow
users to generate fraudulent referral fees from Amazon, online survey
services, and premium telephone numbers. They work by redirecting
unwitting Pinterest users to links they didn't intend on visiting and
can be set up by changing just a few lines of code.
"Such toolkits make it very easy for scammers to start their own scam
sites and become functional cybercriminals with a minimum of skills
and time," Shah wrote in a blog post that detailed his findings. "They
need only change a couple of simple things, such as URLs, and they are
ready to go. Almost all these steps—from creating mass Pinterest
accounts to mass liking, commenting, and posting—have been automated."
The tools come with "well-written documentation," he adds.