'Big Brother' phishing emails spotted
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Cyber-scammers are jumping on the popularity of the UK version of the reality-TV show Big Brother in phishing emails that attempt to get recipients to divulge personal information, according to researchers at security vendor Symantec.
The new season of Big Brother, now in its 10th season on BBC4, began June 4th in the UK. The phishing emails invite recipients to apply to participate in a new version of the show called "Big Brother World" and offers details of how to get cast in the fake program.
The scammers ask recipients to reply with their full name, address, age and telephone number.
As the Symantec researcher observed, "even a casual look at the email reveals several spelling mistakes that start right from the subject line and continue on throughout the message," which should tip off users that it is not an official Big Brother contest.
However, a recent study by web security researchers from VeriSign found that 88 percent of study participants failed to spot spelling mistakes that would have alerted them to a phishing website.
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