Spam Claiming Obama-McCain Deaths Mushrooming

According to Sophos, the IT security and control firm, cyber crooks, without wasting any time to capitalize on the global events, are charging the Internet world with a new spam drive, claiming the death of Barack Obama and John McCain.

The subject lines of the 'Breaking News:' include 'McCane died of heart stroke', 'McCane killed' and 'McCane's wife private video'. The spam creators are hopeful that the maladroit lines of the news will attract the attention of the Internet users so that their probability of opening such e-mails increases.

Graham Cluley, Senior Technology Consultant at Sophos, stated that it has become quite clear from this e-mail scam that the spammers may go to any extent in an attempt to publicize their produce, as per the news published by itbrief, on November 7, 2008.

Cluley further added that the subject line is the eye-catcher thing in the inbox that provokes the users to open it. So, contrary to the traditional online drug store advertisement, spammers are opting for the topical and shocking news headlines that may lure the users' attention on a massive scale.

The company revealed that the e-mail scam campaigns often use thrilling, though puzzled, headings veiled as breaking news to publicize an online Canadian pharmacy. Also, the incorrectly spelled words may serve as a possible escape from such fake e-mails. However, the users should still be cautious and ensure the complete protection from such harmful and offensive attacks.

As a matter of fact, with nearly 46% of the American population mourning, the majority of population is celebrating the victory of Barack Obama. Moreover, the whole world is keenly interested in this particular election. Thus, in an effort to cash in on the opportunity, spammers and malware writers have come into a mode of full attack.

Sophos too found that attackers launched a presidential campaign of their own. The spam attack, exploiting the historic win of US President-elect Barack Obama, is sending the e-mails with tagline as "Obama win preferred in world poll" and a return address of news@president.com.

Hence, the IT experts and computer users should be very vigilant against the unwanted and unidentified e-mail source, website links and advertisements relating to Barack Obama, McCain, or any other personality hitting the campaign trail in the recent times.

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» SPAMfighter News - 11/26/2008