Craigslist themed spam spreading malware
Friday, August 14, 2009
Email security experts are warning of a newly detected malware threat that uses spam with a Craigslist subject heading as a lure to get recipients to visit a malicious website. Visiting the site could infect PCs with a virus.
Security firm Red Condor said the malware, currently undetected by most virus scanners, is embedded in an email that appears to be a response to an ad on the popular classifieds site Craigslist with the subject line "Re: Car For Sale on craigslist."
The spam email implies that the recipient had requested pictures for a car being sold on Craigslist and directs them to view the images via a link to a Picasa album. Clicking on the link installs a virus, Red Condor said.
Only 13 out of 41 virus scanners detected the file as a virus, said Tom Steding, CEO of Red Condor.
"This means that if the message was delivered and a user clicked on the link, they'd likely be infected even if they had an anti-virus program running on their desktop computer," Steding said.
Craigslist has become a popular target for spam and scams by fraudsters. For example, Nigerian and other email scammers use the site to offer non-existent properties for rent and defraud people by having them wire deposits for the fake properties.
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