Fake LinkedIn Profile Page Installs Bogus Antivirus

According to the Internet security firm 'Trend Micro,' fake profiles posted on professional networking sites are presently loading rogueware or counterfeit antivirus programs on people's computers.

Rogueware or counterfeit AV, as defined by security experts, is a software which uses certain social engineering trick to dupe computer users into obtaining licenses. They (security experts) further say that these types of programs are deceptively promoted as antivirus applications to enhance system performance, but in reality they are useless.

They are typically known as scareware since their creators apply scare tactics to get people spend their money on buying them.

Ivan Macalintal, Research Manager, Trend Micro, has been credited for detailing the most recent bogus antivirus. This antivirus is being distributed online and causing damage to those using the professional site 'LinkedIn,' as reported by Trend Micro on September 14, 2009.

The research manager discovered that a fake profile was infesting 'LinkedIn,' which appeared as a search engine result when "Obama" was entered as keyword for search. Cyber criminals filled the web-page carrying the fake profile with numerous .cn links. These links took surfers to a URL hosted on the 'yOutybe' domain which in turn took them to a .com URL named 'localtubeonline.' Eventually, the links brought surfers to a malicious territory that installed an .exe file.

The interesting and notable feature about this strategy is its resemblance with 'YouTube' the legal video-sharing website. But the criminals have cleverly manipulated it via the replacement of "o" with "O". While a cautious surfer may avoid clicking on the sinister web-links, a careless surfer would go ahead with his clicks and get ensnared with the bogus antivirus.

Moreover, the mentioned page where surfers are eventually landed is really a web page related to the 9/11 monuments that cyber criminals leveraged using blackhat SEO (Search Engine Optimization) assaults. The technique involves infecting results on search engines with malevolent web-links through the false boosting of page ranks.

Hence, it is recommended that users avoid following links that emanate from unreliable origins. Further, it is warned that cyber criminals can easily use social-networking websites to reach people's trust area, Trend Micro concluded.

Related article: Fake Spam Mail Announces Australian PM’s Heart Attack

» SPAMfighter News - 10/5/2009