Bitdefender - Jennifer Aniston is more Dangerous than Rihanna and Miley Cyrus in Spam

According to a research done by security vendor, Bitdefender, Hollywood starlet Jennifer Aniston completely outshone Rihanna and Miley Cyrus in cybercriminals eyes during October and November this year (2013).

Aniston is talked about in 19% of junk messages which include names of celebrities followed by Rihanna (16%) and Selena Gomez (13%).

Using names of trending starlets as a lure is a frequent practice of crooks seeking to push bogus surveys and doubtful deals in junk e-mails. In some spam emails, crooks associate Anniston's name with sexual content and a simple click on the link will grab credentials of user's bank account via a malware downloaded on their machines.

On the other hand, Rihanna is mentioned in e-mails leading to web pages with pornographic content and e-shops trading in accessories. The difficulty with such e-shops is that they are so low-profile that likelihood of purchased article reaching the buyer's doorstep are limited.

Spam emails with Selena Gomez promoting artificial surgery and complimentary online concerts which lead to phishing web sites that seize identification details of naive users. Justin Bieber name is associated with indecent messages tip-offing at nudity, sex, and scandals.

Other popular celebrity phishing lure comprise of Miley Cyrus, Scarlet Johansson, Marilyn Monroe, Katy Perry, Beyonce Knowles, Sandra Bullock and Eminem.

Techday.com published news on December, 24, 2013 quoting Loredana Botezatu, E-Threat Analyst of Bitdefender, as saying "Attention-grabbing headlines are often a successful strategy to draw Internauts into surveys to get confidential data and retain the profitable business of scam and spam."

Cso.com.au reported news on December, 20, 2013, with Botezatu as noting that the scandals go to such extents that at times celebs are declared dead and purportedly caught on camera when beaten or while involved in shocking sex scandals. The messages assure scandalous images or videos only to make users open attachments and click links to infest their machines with malware that expose them to improper content or embezzle sensitive information right under people's noses."

And, besides celebrities, Bitdefender analysis revealed that cinema is also an excellent spam lure for curious Internauts. Gravity tops the chart, led by 12 years a Slave, Insidious and The Avengers.

» SPAMfighter News - 1/2/2014