Spammers Using Celebrity Names to Spread Malware

According to Ryan Sherstobitoff, Chief Corporate Evangelist at Panda Security US, on August 3, 2008, there appeared some interesting spam mails showing the subject title - "Christian Bale Agrees to Next Batman Film."

Sherstobitoff said that such an enticing headline along with the record success of "Batman the Dark Night" would obviously make some Internet surfers to open the e-mail and follow link embedded in the message body.

Moreover, as per reports obtained, the message in the e-mail is more luring. It informs that the hostile take over of the Hilton hotel chain that compelled Paris Hilton to go off balance. Obviously, with such news, the e-mail would draw the reader's attention without even realizing that the message is fake,.

Furthermore, PandaLabs stated that the success of the spammers is not just making the recipient of the e-mail steadfastly read the message but also the attack comes in progression of legitimate Websites being compromised to run the codec malware with a similar executable file that downloads when the Web page is viewed.

It also appears that spam mailers are pursuing the news buffs' minds as they are, in this instance, using the latest spamming tactic. Similarly, they used good names of Barack Obama and other presidential candidates of the US to disseminate spam.

Further, Sherstobitoff said that spam mailers are using spam messages with attachments of spoofed, enticing videos of the recent Olympics. These are an attempt to lure sports lovers to have a glimpse of the latest sports activities taking place in Beijing and in the process load various types malicious software on their PCs like spyware, adware or other malware.

In the meantime, according to the Security Analysts at PandaLabs, these news items should ring alarm for security companies and make them feel it is important to work diligently to prevent spammers' activities. The spammers, who are evolving new, bolder tactics and methods to get around security products to entice innocent surfers into their malicious nets, are noticeably widespread.

Related article: Spammers Continue their Campaigns Successfully

» SPAMfighter News - 8/22/2008