Fruit Spam.
If you have been noticing your Instagram feed today, drowning in fruit-related pictures, do not take it lightly, because this might not be your friends taking pictures of their healthier eating habits.
Well, the pictures might be linked to a fruit-themed spam attack that is currently affecting the photo- and video-sharing service.
It is still not clear how said spammers are getting hold of users’ login credentials. However, reports indicate that the bitly hyperlink along with the fruit pictures used in the attack has been clicked on more than 35,000 times that takes users to a fake BBC page promoting weight-loss coffee.
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“Ever seen this stuff? I guess its super healthy, im giving it a try. I saw it on Dr Oz’s show! Link is in my bio #lovemyfollowers #health,” reads one fruit photo’s description, according to PCMag.com.
Now, Bitly has flagged the link, warning users not to click on it. This fake website could be a follow-through spam that attempts to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details “from users foolish enough to place an order for the coffee” (and sometimes, indirectly, money) by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.
GigaOm’s Om Malik first spotted the spam attack. Earlier today, he reported that spammers are taking over users’ accounts, posting photos of fruit and changing the uniform resource locator, or URL, in each bio. According to him, Facebook has not offered up any comment as to what might be going on.
Instagram has roughly 130,000,000 active monthly users.
Instagram has already begun the process of combating the attack by sending out password-reset emails to many users affected.
“Earlier today a small portion of our users experienced a spam incident where unwanted photos were posted from their accounts. Our security and spam team quickly took actions to secure the accounts involved, and the posted photos are being deleted,” an Instagram representative told The Next Web.
PCMag.com suggested that users go through their Instagram third-party applications list-which gives people an idea of the websites that have access to their accounts-and cancel the privileges of anything that sounds bizarre.