New MP3 Spam Scares Recipients into Revealing Private Information

During the third week of November 2007, Commtouch, the provider of e-mail services, identified an MP3 spam in a new getup using subject lines intended to scare its recipients.

The spam mail tells the reader that the sender, who is a private detective, had been intercepting phone calls of the recipient and that the audio tape of one such call was attached in the e-mail. When unsuspecting users download the audio file, a malware is dropped on the computer that infects the machine.

The Vice President of marketing, Rebecca Steinberg Herson, at Commtouch, said that such preying on guilty minds of people with a worm or virus is a naïve tactic of social engineering. DMnews published Herson's statement on November 20, 2007.

The new spam mails are crafted in a characteristic way that fit to hide any breach of law while ensure that a lot of people click on the attachments and unwarily allow malicious program onto their PCs, according to security specialists.

The subject lines that the e-mail uses include "You're being watched", "I'm monitoring you", "The tape of your conversation", and "Your phone is monitored".

The e-mail also says that the attachment in it is a zip file that is password-protected; hence, it is including the password to access it. And as soon as the recipient types the password, the MP3 attachment opens and the spam becomes active.

However, Commtouch is not sure of the malware's exact nature. The security vendors assume that the idea is to collect information from the computers or convert them into 'zombie' PCs rather than overtly damage the systems.

Malware creators no longer design their codes just to inflict chaos on machines. Instead they develop them to treacherously steal information such as usernames and passwords by harvesting data on hard drives, said Herson in a statement. ComputerWorld published Herson's statement on November 20, 2007.

The new 'private investigator malicious e-mails' use tactics that appear same as those of the earlier Storm worm spam mail. Those e-mails tricked recipients into unwarily downloading malicious code by luring them with exciting headlines like "230 dead as storm batters Europe" and more.

Related article: New Zealand Releases Code To Reduce Spam

» SPAMfighter News - 12/1/2007