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Spammers Piggyback On Swine Flu Outbreak
SecurityProNews
Staff Writer
2009-04-27
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Spammers never miss an opportunity to capitalize on a buzzy topic. Already the concern over a recent outbreak of the swine flu has produced a wave of swine flu related spam.
 | | Spammers Piggyback On Swine Flu Outbreak |  |
Researchers at McAfee saw a spike in swine flu spam over the weekend. In just that short amount of time this particular brand of spam accounted for two percent of all spam.
As might be expected, the spam is pharmaceutical-centered, advertising drugs and providing links to online pharmacies. The spam originates from a network of compromised, "zombie" computers, says McAfee. The security company expects swine flu related spam will increase and that many may contain links to malicious websites.
The subject lines combine scare tactics with celebrities the spammers think recipients might be interested in:
· First US swine flu victims!
· US swine flu statistics
· Salma Hayek caught swine flu!
· Swine flu worldwide!
· Swine flu in Hollywood!
· Swine flu in USA
· Madonna caught swine flu!
McAfee says there also has been an increase in the number of domain names containing references to swine flu, which could indicate a rise in malicious websites. As always, watch what you click, and ignore, delete and report spam messages appearing in your inbox.
About the Author:
SecurityProNews is a daily online and email publication focusing on internet security issues.
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