It can be manifested in many ways, including bulk messages,[2] profanity, insults, hate speech, malicious links, fraudulent reviews, fake friends, and personally identifiable information.
As email spam filters became more effective, catching over 95% of these messages, spammers have moved to a new target – the social web.
[5] Social spammers often capitalize on breaking news stories to plant malicious links or dominate the comment sections of websites with disruptive or offensive content.
Many of the old email spam content resurfaced on social networks, from Viagra ads, to work-from-home scams, to counterfeit merchandise.
Recent analysis showed social spammers content preferences changing slightly, with apparel and sports accounting for 36% of all posts.
[8] These spammers can utilize the social network's search tools to target certain demographic segments, or use common fan pages or groups to send notes from fraudulent accounts.
For example, in 2009, a large number of spam accounts began simultaneously posting links to a website, causing ‘ajobwithgoogle’ to trend.
[18] He started out discussing the high price of LeBron James shoes, but quickly turned into a stream of racist and insulting comments, and threats against children.
User-submitted hate speech is a comment that contains strongly offensive content directed against people of a specific race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.
[22] Malware can be very dangerous to the user, and can manifest in several forms: viruses, worms, spyware, Trojan horses, or adware.