Attackers target teenagers through fake IM profiles

Malicious users are targeting young instant messaging aficionados through bogus profiles that redirect them to adult Websites, where adware is installed on their PCs, SC Magazine UK reports.

A number of profiles on BuddyProfile.com, which is a site used to enhance user profiles for AOL Instant Messenger, are sending users to adult sites that install adware onto the victim’s PC.

The malware then displays fake “security warnings” to affected users, according to a security researcher. What makes the scam even more disturbing is that BuddyProfile.com is most popular with teenagers, the researcher said.

Links to malware within user-designed profiles are nothing new. Experts warned of malicious user profiles on MySpace numerous times this summer.