New Phishing E-mail Attack against Adobe PDF Reader Users

Adobe users are currently facing a new e-mail phishing scam that has inflicted Internet and caused a lot of disturbance.

The phishing e-mail targets users by enticing them through a subject a line - "download and upgrade PDF Reader-Writer for Windows." It also contains the fake logo of Adobe and highlight links that download malicious codes on the user computer or cause other troubles. Moreover, the e-mail URL seems to have come from Adobe newsletter@pdf-adobe.org - a deceptive technique of people behind the scam.

In some cases, the e-mail asks users to register with the website before downloading. The motive behind registration is to harness personal information.

Meanwhile, Adobe has warned all its users that it is a phishing scam because the company does not ask for user's personal information. The e-mail address is undoubtedly bogus since Adobe doesn't use '.org domain extension' normally.

Apart from Adobe, Internet security researchers studying the phishing e-mail scam have claimed that within two seconds, one can identify that it is a phishing campaign.

Firstly, Adobe product comes with the names "Adobe Reader" or "Adobe Acrobat" instead of "PDF Reader/Writer." Secondly, the message has poor format setting which can't be possible in the case of Adobe. Thirdly, the responding e-mail address is linked with Gmail. Adobe does not use Gmail address to respond to the e-mail, it has its own - adobe.com domain.

Based on these facts, security researchers have advised users that in case they come across such e-mails that embed links and suspicious content, they should avoid them. Don't follow the instructions given in them before searching the web to know if it is hoax or legitimate. No matter what the users find inside the e-mail, they should not influenced by it and check the known URL of the website if the e-mail has come from the established company like www.adobe.com in the present case.

To deal with phishing e-mails, users need to take some important steps like educating themselves and be alert of such type of scams. Users should also adopt the best Internet security applications to stop the infiltration of phishing e-mails.

Related article: New Zealand Releases Code To Reduce Spam

» SPAMfighter News - 2/6/2010