Half of US online gamers are spam vulnerable, BitDefender warns

As security company BitDefender found, 50% of current gamers more likely to receive spam and be the target of phishing attacks.

That is evidently happens as gamers are a bit too gung-ho to add anyone to their friends list in order to have more people to play with. Gamers are more likely to accept spammers in their friends list when they are in a social network than in any other online communication environment

"This fact brings spam and social engineering schemes closer to the user than any e-mail spam or online scam,” says George Petre, threat intelligence team leader. So, BitDefender advices social gaming aficionados to use extreme caution before enlarging their circle of friends.

Carrying out its research, BitDefender created three false accounts: one of them had no photo and little information, one had a picture with a little bit of info, and the other added more detail. The company then signed up to a generic interest group and after one hour, the three profiles had 23, 47, and 53 friends, respectively. Doing the same in a games group, however, added to the profiles 85, 108, and 111 friends.