Spam News

Spammers exploit Michael Jackson's death

Friday, June 26, 2009

The death of pop icon Michael Jackson on Thursday is already being exploited by cybercriminals sending spam emails with subject lines and messages related to the news, IT security firm Sophos said.

In these messages, the spammer claims to have "vital informations" about the death of "Michael Jackson's" to share with recipients of the email. The body of the email does not contain any call-to-action links, but a spammer can easily harvest recipients' email addresses via a free live email address if computer users reply to the spam message.
This type of breaking news story that spurs widespread popular interest is the perfect vehicle for spammers to snare vulnerable computer users, said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

Cluley said the firm has also seen spam piggy-backing on the news of Farrah Fawcett's death to spread fake antivirus software.

"The fact is that cybercriminals have no respect for taste and decency," Cluley said. "The only thing they are interested in is making some money for themselves."

In March, the sudden death of British actress Natasha Richardson inspired a wave of malicious search-optimized websites for spreading rogue antivirus products.