Pinterest users were a target of an unusual attack on Friday when several users reported seeing butt pics pinned to their board.
According to Daily Mail, several users reported seeing pics of skimpy clad women and bare bottoms with weight loss captions on their boards. Many users also raised concerns on Twitter.
"Dear Pinterest my accounts been hacked with someone posting hundreds of butt pictures all over my boards," startup expert Hermione Way tweeted along with a snapshot of her Pinterest board.
While Pinterest did not comment on what went wrong, Daily Mail said that the problem could be with third-party websites that allow users to pin posts.
"The problem appears to be on other websites that host 'Pin this' buttons, rather than Pinterest directly. Many websites feature the button, alongside other share options, on articles and images. Hackers are infiltrating these websites and inserting malicious codes into these third-party 'Pin this' buttons,"
ABC News indicated that phishers were at work. It said that users get an email saying that their friends have shared with them a pin. When they click the pin, they are led to a site which sells counterfeit products or some other fraud.
Better Business Bureau had earlier this month warned Pinterest users of spam attacks advising them to exercise caution when clicking pins, NDTV said.
Steve J. Bernas ofo Better Business Bureau was quoted by NDTV saying, "Pinterest is an easy outlet for scammers to access, just like any social media website."
"Our systems were alerted to some incidents of spam yesterday evening. These reports did not come in at a large scale. We began working on cleaning up and placing the accounts in safe mode immediately. The accounts have since been secured. As a precaution, Pinners should use unique and strong passwords, and can get more information in our Help Cente," a Pinterest representative told Tech Crunch.
