Sophos Stops another Spam Campaign Feigning to be from Facebook

Experts at security firm Sophos revealed that a new malware ridden campaign appears to be sent from Facebook.

Sophos reveals that the email is drafted in poor French which many may not notice. Moreover, Sophos explains that polite and formal style of French language has been used in the mail, instead of personal subject matter of intimate photographs.

This clearly indicates that people who have written the email are not French national and have employed in an online translation tool.

The unsolicited email with the subject matter 'Facebook' reads: Hello (email address), I don't know how to say but I have tried to provide you with few photographs for long but thought you were not interested in me. I would send you some photos attached with this mail. Kindly download the photos and extract them and I am sure you would love them. The password is 123456. Have a great day!

Experts at Sophos emphasized that the attached ZIP file is malicious and known as DC24145.EXE. It has a Facebook-like icon and contains a (fake) digital signature issued by Avira GmbH, anti-virus firm of Germany.

Sophos identifies the malware as Mal/VB-AER and Troj/ZbotMem-B. The cybercriminals thought that encrypting the ZIP file with a password would have tricked anti-virus filters of the recipients but these are very common techniques which most anti-virus tools are skilled to phish out such nuisances.

Nakedsecurity.sophos.com published a report on 18th July, 2012 quoting Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant with Sophos as saying 'Whether you are a Francophile or not, don't let malware to corrupt your computer. You should always be apprehensive of unwanted e-mail attachments coming from out of the blue and must ensure to have proper defenses to protect your computer from such malware and spam intimidation.

Besides this is not the first time such intimate pics have been distributed via spam emails. In August 2007, nude photos and videos of Hollywood stars such as Nicole Kidman and Angelina Jolie were distributed via malware ridden spam campaign.

Related article: Sobig.f Worm After three Years of Manipulation

» SPAMfighter News - 7/27/2012