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BHSEO Scammers Exploiting Apple’s Debut to Cloud Market

According to Trend Micro the security company, its researchers have found that with Apple joining the cloud market, Internet fraudsters have started unleashing scareware scams to exploit the situation.

The crooks, according to Fraud Analyst Paul Pajares at Trend Micro, are already employing BHSEO (Black-Hat Search Engine Optimization) tactics for corrupting search results related to the term "iCloud." Eweek.com reported this on June 20, 2011.

Incidentally, many of the malevolent websites seemed like they were linked with the news site MyMobi, which dealt with newly-released gadgets, Pajares reported. Moreover, several web-pages had files whose names included the words "iCloud" and "Apple" while the pages belonged to compromised websites, indicating that a bulk assault had been unleashed that utilized those search terms.

Elaborating further, Pajares said that if Web-surfers clicked the given web-link along with LANS on the hijacked site, the result was an instant diversion onto a hostile site containing a script, which attempted at pulling down the SecurityScanner.exe file onto the surfers' PCs. And if this file was executed, a phony anti-virus called XP Antispyware 2012 got loaded, stated Net-security.org dated June 20, 2011.

Moreover, according to another Trend Micro investigator, the phony AV carries a registration link that if clicked, diverts end-users onto a phishing website hosted on one freshly-introduced domain, which consists of an option -"Choose Plan & Checkout" for purchase of XP Antispyware 2012. Additionally, the phony AV prevents Chrome and Internet Explorer Web-browsers from surfing on the Web unless the victims buy the product, the investigator adds.

Meanwhile, Pajares states that despite cleansing the poisoned web-pages, it cannot be said for sure that the online-crooks will not compromise MyMobi again alternatively hunt for other websites for abuse. The fraudsters, alongside "cloud," have further utilized the search phrases "what is icloud apple" and "what is apple icloud."

Furthermore as per Pajares, Trend Micro was presently tracking for more probable FAKEAV URLs hosted on TLD.co.cc based on the search term "icloud".

Eventually, similar to the above incident, cyber-criminals, during January 2010, also tried capitalizing on the announcement of Apple's iPad even prior to the device's first purchase, via the launch of BHSEO scams.

Related article: Bugs Swell In Browsers in 2006

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