Beware Of
Michael Jackson Spam/Malware
It didn’t take long for fraudsters to
exploit Michael Jackson’s death, as
online-security firms began reporting email
scams using his name to attract victims.
One message contains links supposedly of
unpublished photos and a YouTube video of
the singer, but the link prompts recipients
to download a file that, when opened, opens
a legitimate Web page while downloading and
installing malware, according to San
Diego-based security provider Websense.
Elsewhere, an email is circulating that
reads: “Vital informations after the death
of Michael Jackson’s I really need some one
trusted & secretive to speak with i have in
my possession before its too late Kindly
reply me and i will immediately respond
back, Its for just secret between both of
us,” warned Graham Cluley, a senior
technology consultant at security firm
Sophos.
“Okay, so it’s not the most grammatically
convincing spam message ever to have been
sent, but in the whirlwind of interest in
Jackson’s demise there are probably more
than a few whose interest would have been
piqued,” he wrote.
Though this message doesn’t link to malware,
another virus spam messages reads “Michael
Jackson was killed … but who killed Michael
Jackson” and anyone who clicks on the
message won’t find an answer to the
question, what you get if you click on that
e-mail and go to the page the cyber
criminals have linked to the message, is
your computer immediately infected with
malware.
Once it is on a computer’s hard drive, the
malware will steal bank account information
and passwords. The virus also will redirect
certain Google searches performed on an
infected computer, meaning the malware
inserts links to other virus-infected pages
into the top positions of search results.
This means that search results that
unsuspecting users would otherwise think
valid are actually portals to other virus
programs and malware.
News-pegged scams like this are nothing new.
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