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Phishing Malware Combo Targets Twitter with Spurious Obama Story

Researchers belonging to PandaLabs report that cyber-criminals are misusing Twitter.com for executing one scam, which enables to phish end-users off their credentials, in addition to disseminating malware, which filches more sensitive details stored on the victims' PCs.

The scam reportedly, involves one missive distributed across Twitter that tells the recipient to check a news item on Facebook.com/URL regarding Obama who hit the face of a guy because the guy shouted he was a nigger.

Security experts at Panda Security, describing the attack, state the scammers use the disgraceful missive for duping end-users so they'll proceed to follow the given web-link.

But clicking the web-link leads Internauts onto one bogus Facebook page on which they are directed for providing their Twitter account information.

Once obtained, these account credentials may enable the criminals towards disseminating the Obama missive. The method will further make sure that more-and-more Twitter accountholders voluntarily go for the malevolent web-link since the missive apparently arrives from persons who're trustworthy in their view.

But that's not all of the scam. For, the victim in addition is led onto another website, which exhibits one bogus YouTube movie file designed on the backdrop of one false Facebook page. Here, there are directions for the victim that he should make his 'YouTube player' up-to-date so he can view the movie. The scam typically getting the victim to double-click 'ok' for "install," produces a worm named Koobface.LP that infects his PC for seizing all his private information.

Issuing a statement, Technical Director Louis Corrons at PandaLabs says that the assault abuses the two extremely visited websites for social networking i.e. Twitter and Facebook so victims can be made to think they're surfing on a reliable Internet-site. Furthermore, it capitalizes on people's curious nature to go through anything disreputable and so uses an unbelievable story related to President Obama of USA as well as to tales on racism, while eventually infects the websites' visitors with malware, explains Corrons. Theregister.co.uk published this dated November 14, 2012.

Meanwhile, the countries, as per Panda, that reported the maximum number of victims getting infected due to the attack -some 2,000- are Sweden and UK.

Related article: Phishing Attacks, Growing in Sophistication

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