Online Scammers Profusely Targeting TRON Fans, Cautions GFI Software

Researchers from security company GFI Software (previously Sunbelt) caution users that they must be wary of multiple scams that cyber-criminals are running to attack admirers of TRON a very recent hit film.

Apparently, scammers could not let go the opportunity for exploiting people's enthusiasm for the film, particularly the interest among the franchise's admirers.

Warns Senior Researcher Christopher Boyd at GFI Software, searching online for a few TRON actions may lead to plentiful installs, surveys and frustration. Softpedia.com reported this on January 5, 2011.

Actually cyber-criminals, in their majority of campaigns, promise fans of the film's viewing over the Internet through video-links that link up with YouTube. But if people follow the links, they land on sites, which tell them that they must answer a questionnaire prior to actually enjoying the viewing.

However, these questionnaires are spurious as they trick surfers into subscribing for high-profile services, as also revealing their private details to be used later for spamming.

Meanwhile, according to security researchers from ESET, some other flowing scams free of TRON employ the socially-engineered tactic of "necessary codec" for making surfers pull down and load Adware applications such as ShopperReports, ClickPotato, BlinkxBeat and QuestBrowser.

Adware, according to security specialists, is described as an application that supports advertisements while it works, exhibits or pulls down ads automatically on the target PC, with these ads appearing though pop-ups. Also, adware programs are meant for generating earnings that the programs' creators look forward to as also they're sometimes combined with spyware, they elaborate.

Meanwhile, because of the maliciousness of the TRON scam, GFI Software suggests Web-surfers to exercise great caution while accessing sites that provide plentiful TRON-related updates, as also avoid any associated questionnaire.

Ultimately, the use of the current social engineering trick by cyber-criminals for gathering users' private data isn't unprecedented. During 2010, online crooks exploited the buzz, which associated with the "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" movie's launch during November same year while duping people into revealing their critical information based on the promise that they could take down the movie free of cost, but who actually ended up becoming infected.

Related article: Online Card Fraud Shows Greater Tendency Than Chip and Pin

» SPAMfighter News - 1/15/2011