Netizens Need to be Cautious of Holiday Spam

In a blog post published by jahne.com on September 11, 2009, security firm Trend Micro's anti-spam research engineer Maria Alarcon stated that as September indicates the month of holidays, spammers are all set to "spamvertise" their products.

She also pointed out in her blog that the security firm recently discovered numerous spam messages that used "Christmas" in their subject line, enticing users to avail the "best gift" for their beloved ones. To avail the gift, they need to click on the URL embedded in the text of spam message. The moment this link is clicked by the user, it directs them to a website that sells duplicate watches at discounted price.

Three social engineering ploys that generally crop up with the onset of holiday season have been named in Alarcon's blog post.

First and foremost is 'Tis the Season to Stay Secure'. This ploy describes a social engineering tactic used mostly by spammers and malware vendors who make use of bogus discount offers and advertisements to attract victims into clicking the malicious sites, or typing in their important information into forged sites. On a general note, these crooks use such schemes for popular and sizzling retail items, thereby making them appealing to victims.

The most suitable example for this malicious social engineering ploy was 'Trojan TROJ_AYFONE.A'. It exploited iPhone released by Apple in 2007. The malware displayed bogus advertisements and a fraudulent website of an online store from where the product could be purchased.

'Greeting Cards Spread No Cheer' is the second one listed by Alarcon in her blog. In this particular ploy, scammers send hallmark greeting card to the netizens, who open their e-mail attachment thinking some friend or some one known had remembered them. An example of a malicious Trojan spread via this mode is TROJ_INJECTOR.DD.

Finally, her blog also discusses 'Holiday Proving Stormy' - a social engineering tactic used by cybercriminals, particularly spammers. The example of this ploy includes spam messages that have a malicious link which redirect users to certain IP addresses to trick them into downloading malware or a malicious file.

With the holiday season just round the corner, security experts strongly recommend all the users to be cautious while browsing the Web.

Related article: Netizens Alerted Against Online Scams Exploiting Global Economic Crisis

» SPAMfighter News - 10/1/2009