Halloween Exploited For Scareware And Spam

Security researcher Samir Patil from Symantec cautions that with Halloween coming closer, spammers are frantically luring Internet users with Halloween e-cards, gift cards, sweepstakes, jackpots, personalized gifts, costumes, print products, as well as Internet contests. Softpedia reported his on October 20, 2010.

A few of the captions used in the spam messages are "Halloween Treat Bags, Home Decorations, and More," "Halloween Series Campaign Vol1" and "Open this! $1 Million Prize" etc., Patil warns.

Elaborating further, he says that if anyone clicks the link embedded on the spam mails, he lands up on a signup web-page, which deceptively mines the user's e-mail id. The page then tells that user that he must provide sensitive personal details, Patil further states. Symantec's blog published this on October 18, 2010.

Meanwhile aside spammers, distributors of scareware or fake anti-virus software are also exploiting the occasion for making personal gains. According to the Symantec researchers, during Halloween, scary goblins and ghouls lurk, so computer operators must be vigilant of scareware scams hitting their systems. For, scareware scams spread by deceptively getting Web-surfers to download malicious, fake anti-virus programs on their PCs.

State the investigators, malicious persons develop malware that appear as an anti-malware program. Simply said, while end-users believe that they are downloading software for safeguarding their PCs, it is quite probable that they are downloading certain things which will destruct their systems, instead.

Thus Symantec elaborated that during the current Halloween season fake security software typically arrived in the form of pop-up, which alerted that the user's computer was malware infected. Further, a lot of applications were designed to appear as genuine, popular brands that deliberately misled end-users.

Remarking about both spam and scareware problems, Patil stated that the Halloween festival was one that both old and young people celebrated with great pleasure. But, sadly it was also the season when many malicious situations occurred online, which lured people and made them victims, he added.

Hence the security company's experts suggest that users, particularly now, should avoid all spam mails and pop-ups, which solicit their private information or offer to load extra software onto their PCs.

Related article: Halloween Spam Luring to Snatch Away Private Data

» SPAMfighter News - 10/28/2010