Hoax E-Mail Target Madonna Drops Malware

According to Sophos, an online security firm, popular pop singer Madonna is the focus of a fresh round of malevolent spam mails. The emerging hype around Madonna's 50th birthday and her imminent world tour is being used by spammers as a bait to send malicious code in messages that claim to provide a link pointing to a disgraceful video of Madonna.

Nevertheless, Sophos warned computer users opening the URL in the hope to find a video would install a Trojan called Troj/FakeVir-EW that pop up a fake security alert and encourage them to buy a bogus anti-virus software.

Sophos said that the cyber crooks have consciously launched the attack at a time when Madonna is about to go on her world tour. Spammers are known to commonly exploit excitement associated with upcoming events, while they constantly change their e-mails together with the malicious code slightly to bypassing spam filters.

Graham Cluley, Senior Technology Consultant at Sophos, said that as the star's new world tour about to start, it was nothing astonishing that the hackers attempting to capitalize on it. Using current stories is an old trick but the risk is that admirers of the pop-diva would click without thinking, as reported by ITNews on August 22, 2008.

Cluley further said that Troj/FakeVir-EW is the most recent example of cyber criminals attempting to frighten innocent people into purchasing unwisely following deceptive security warnings, as reported by securityProNews on August 22, 2008.

Furthermore, Sophos warned that if spammers once succeeded in fooling innocent Web users to give away their payment card information, there is little doubt that the data would be used for various kinds of identity deceit.

In addition, spam mailers have sent messages about other celebrities like Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Angelina Jolie and Lindsay Lohan in similar attacks previously. Moreover, according to Sophos' security experts, the Madonna spam is the most recent attack from those behind the recent CNN and MSNBC spam campaigns, and it indicates that the criminals aren't going to yield easily.

» SPAMfighter News - 01-09-2008

SPAMfighter is a free spam filter for Outlook, Outlook Express,Windows Mail and Thunderbird - Read more

SPAMfighter Exchange Module is a spam/virus filter for Exchange server - Free 30 days trial

Remove Spyware with SPYWAREfighter - Free 30 days trial