Aussies hit with nuclear spam campaign
Friday, September 12, 2008
Some Sydney residents may be in for a shock when they open their emails to find a message claiming that a nuclear explosion has occurred in a suburb of the city.
But email security teams are urging people not to click on the message as it is a hoax perpetrated by criminals using the spam email to commit identity theft and fraud.
SC Magazine has noted that the spam email attack - trying to capitalize on 9/11 fears - tries to steal sensitive information from compromised systems using trojan malware.
"This seems more relevant to people instead of spam that’s selling Viagra from Canada. The real point is that it’s a really cheap and easy way for them to raise the awareness of it just by using .com.au," said paul Ducklin, one of the email security experts responsible for identifying the threat.
Elsewhere, ZDNet has warned that people should be on the lookout for spam emails which purport to contain news about a sex tape made by Barack Obama.
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