Trojan Email Warning - Spoofing MSNBC News Alerts With Phony Headlines
admin on August 15th, 2008
Consumers are warned to be on the lookout for a nasty new email scheme that uses fake news headlines purportedly sent from MSNBC’s news alert service except these messages try to trick readers into clicking on a site that will infect their computers malicious software that will give the hackers complete control over the victims machine..
The e-mails are titled “msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS” followed by headlines ranging from “Elizabeth Taylor found murdered at home” to “McCain gives up fighting for presidency.” are being sent out at an alarming rate and consumers are urged to delete any suspect emails and not to click on any links in the bogus email.
The spam unleashed Wednesday follows a massive campaign last week in which spammers impersonated CNN.com. That campaign saw 250 million spam messages sent in one intense 24 hour period, according to spam-fighting firm MX Logic Inc. Those e-mails appeared to include links to CNN’s top 10 stories, but Internet users who were tricked into clicking on those links were sent instead to Web sites overseas that were booby-trapped with malicious software.
