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April Fools’ Day Scams Ready to Hit Netizens

A Pacific Northwest developer of latest anti-spyware solutions, SUPERAntiSpyware.com, has noted that every year there is a surge in incidents of new spyware infection in the initial week of April, which has now become more-or-less an annual tradition that aggravates the problems for computer users, increases expenses and decreases productivity, thereby causing an overall inconvenience. It may cost thousands of dollars in repair work.

According to Internet security experts, cybercriminals are expected to heavily target the social networking websites. Moreover, spam volume is also likely to go up radically on April 1, 2010.

As reported in the beginning of March 2010 by The East Texan, the student newspaper at Texas A&M University-Commerce, the school has already faced an April Fools' Day scam. The bogus e-mail message informs that social networking site Facebook will start charging on April 1, 2010 and includes a link that directs users to a malware-containing protest webpage.

Earlier in April 2008, large number of online threats exploited April Fools' Day, and users were warned by security firms to keep away from e-mails themed on April Fools' Day as these may direct them to maliciously designed websites.

The scam e-mails contain subject lines such as "April Fools' Day", accompanied by equivalently common images from Google Image search. Lastly, the e-mails prompt gullible users into downloading the malware.

Founder of SUPERAntiSpyware.com, Nick Skrepetos, stated that Spyware and malware developers have grown increasingly creative and several new infections have emerged, which have considerably reduced the effectiveness of conventional detection and removal techniques, reported by PRLog on March 25, 2010.

So, in order to remain protected from the possible online threats, Web users have been advised by the security experts to avoid opening e-mails - particularly attachments or files - coming from unknown sources. They are also advised to be aware of "scareware" tactics.

In addition to this, security experts have asked users to be cautious while visiting any website for the first time and to run various layers of security applications since a single solution might prove insufficient.

Related article: April 2007 Saw a Two-fold Jump in phishing Sites

» SPAMfighter News - 3/30/2010

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