Malicious Spam Pose as Obama’s Acceptance Speech

According to the news report published by LatchEagle on January 15, 2009, BBB (Better Business Bureau) is warning people to be wary of a malicious spam mail circulating on the Internet, posing as Barack Obama's acceptance speech.

Officials at BBB stated that the spam message is circulating in dual formats; one offers a link claiming to take the user to the text of the speech and other provides a movie clip.

Moreover, the e-mails pretend to be sent from a reliable media source and use the headline "Obama Acceptance Speech" or "Amazing Speech by Obama".

The security officials at BBB also said that clicking on the given link would take the user to a malevolent website that harbors a Trojan horse capable of compromising the security and safety of a visiting computer.

Meantime, as security officials and analysts at BBB examine e-mails that pretend to provide links to videos and news sites supposedly containing details of a current event, these links have been working as effective virus baits. Thus, the November 2008 US presidential election offered a key opportunity to scammers, phishers, malware creators and other criminals to renew surge of malware-disseminating spam on the Internet.

Further, Obama-related topics are already proving to be highly lucrative to spammers, according to the security specialists. A day after Obama's Election victory, they (spammers) started sending Spanish and English-language e-mails containing links that posed to display a video discussion between the President and his advisors. In reality, these links connected to hijacked sites. In fact, despite warnings of not following links from unrecognizable sources, these techniques continue to increase, said the agency's officials.

Meanwhile, in the latest incident, BBB advises users to ignore and delete e-mails that claim to show Obama's acceptance speech, or his inauguration, and especially arrive from unfamiliar sources.

However, if any user has clicked on the e-mail message, the agency suggests that he should notify the authorities immediately. He should also reset his password and update his antivirus software as means of self-precautionary measures.

Related article: Malicious Scripts with Zero-byte Padding can Pass Undetected

» SPAMfighter News - 1/31/2009