Spammers Utilize Untrue Pandemic News within New E-mail Scam

According to researchers from Symantec the security company, spammers are utilizing false reports of epidemic within their most recent destructive e-mail campaign.

Displaying "Epidemics in [location]" as the subject line, the sender of the spam mail warning tells that even though the government may deny the truth, there's one fresh epidemic spreading across the [location]. Thereafter, he states that he became aware of it from people he closely knows who're currently staying there. Thus instructions are provided in the e-mail on ways of avoiding the infection, the writer indicates.

But rather than get the instructions about the method for remaining safeguarded, the e-mail recipients get diverted onto a website, which produces malware that the vendor for protective software detected as Trojan.Malscript, which abuses known security flaws as well as conducts heap spraying.

Worryingly, according to a comment by Symantec's security researchers, it's because of the above kinds of spam schemes carrying malware, which have caused an increase in malevolent websites. Their comment gets additional backing from data that Symantec published within its "November 2011 Symantec Intelligence Report" that states that 40.2% of malware-laced e-mails had web-links to malevolent sites, accounting for a 20.1% rise starting October 2011.

Besides, previously cyber-criminals employed scare tactics in their spam campaigns like during the 2009 epidemic of swine flu. One likewise spam scheme, also based on scare tactics, spread over the weeks stretching till April 1, 2010 wherein the Conficker virus was disseminated accompanied with one prominent attack launch. In general, assaults based on scare tactics actually aim at creating panic amongst the spam recipients who getting frightened likely follow malevolent web-links alternatively pull down and install malware, remark the Symantec researchers.

Hence, it's advisable that Internauts overlook the above kind of fake alerts, despite the messages arriving from any trustworthy organization/individual. And as it's possible to easily spoof e-mail ids as well as craft fake URL addresses, victims coming across them mayn't doubt anything harmful concealed within the innocuous-appearing e-mail/link. Finally, end-users will further do well by loading one high quality anti-virus while ensuring that the software's signature definitions are kept up-to-date at all times.

Related article: Spammers Continue their Campaigns Successfully

» SPAMfighter News - 12/16/2011