Spam Offers Fake Gas Cards to Obama Survey Participants

As the US Presidential election draws closer, online scammers are quick to exploit the popularity of presidential candidates. A new large-scale spam campaign pertaining to presidential contender Barrack Obama has been detected recently in the research labs of security firm Trend Micro.

The Content Security team of Trend Micro employed spam filters to intercept the e-mail that asks the recipients to take part in an online survey relating to the Democratic Party nominee and in return would get a gas cards worth $500.

However, Security Specialists at Trend Micro state that the e-mail message is fake. When users click to answer to the poll, they are redirected to a Web page that in no way associates with the survey instead hosts an adware.

Furthermore, the Web page uses the legitimate domain smileycentral.com and associates with the search toolbar software, Webfetti. It also offers services with which users can personalize their Websites for free. However, when users opt for the 'Always Free' link, they are directed to load a file that pretends to be an ActiveX control object.

Meanwhile, according to the security experts, the file is a Trojan that Trend Micro identified as ADW_MYWEBSEARCH adware, which opens new registry points on the system during its installation process so as to enable automatic execution of its own self every time the system starts up.

However, as per the security specialists, the risk from the adware is 'low'. Also, the adware affects the following operating systems - Windows 98, NT, ME, XP, 2000 and Server 2003. Further, the adware may come as a .DLL file that exports some of its utilities for use by other malicious software.

Security experts also say that 'The US Presidential election' draws international attention including that of spammers as well as other online criminals. It may be noted that lately alerts were issued about a spam campaign pertaining to Barrack Obama and his bogus sex scandal. Such spam mails are crafted to distribute malware that in the form of trojans load the victims' systems with malicious programs.

Related article: Spam Scam Bags a Scottish Connection

» SPAMfighter News - 30-09-2008

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