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Scareware Hackers Exploited Alexis Pilkington’s Death

A girl aged 17, Alexis Pilkington, committed suicide on March 21, 2009, and this incidence is being well utilized by the Internet fraudsters for monetary gain, as reported by Sophos on March 23, 2010.

Alexis from New York was a very skilled midfield football player. Reportedly, she was the sufferer of cyber-bullying on websites like Formspring and Facebook, and this was the reason of her suicide. Cyber-bullying means when some uses cell phones, Internet, and other such technologies to send or post images or content particularly to embarrass or hurt someone.

Her 48 year old father, Thomas Pilkington, communicated with the press regarding her death, believing that other young people will learn from the lesson and stop bullying their friends and acquaintances online. Unfortunately, Thomas's attempt to raise the profile of Alexis's death has pulled in the attention of the bad guys. The hackers have left no chance of missing the opportunity to exploit people's interest and curiosity in Alexis by automatically employing blackhat SEO skills to flood Web pages with the information that claims association with the news.

Out of curiosity, when users click on the links which appears similar to customary news links, computer viruses infect their systems. By faking an anti-virus attack, these viruses known as rogueware or scareware, can completely destroy the data.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos said in a blog which was published by the firm on March 23, 2010 that users must always remember that these cybercriminals can go to any extent to stoop in the chase for victims. The frightening truth is that in their efforts to contaminate computers to steal resources, money and identities, these fraudsters lose no sleep on exploiting the terrible death of Alexis.

Hence, experts strongly advise the users to be watchful while clicking on the links. To know about the news or read news online, people must go for trusted sources only and assure updated spyware and malware protection.

Furthermore, users shall also seek for an application or a program which will safeguard them opening the Web page. Hence, even if the user clicks on a malicious program, he/she will be defended before reaching the virus.

Related article: SecureWorks Identifies Bank and Information Stealing Trojan Coreflood

» SPAMfighter News - 4/2/2010

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