Posts Tagged ‘Scamware’

Scammers who attempt to lure online users to volunteer their personal credentials for free pornography are now targeting social networks.
According to Symantec, the latest Monthly security report suggests that 92 per cent of adult phishing scams that were recorded during January took place on social networking sites such as Facebook & Bebo. Once the details have been taken, users have been redirected not to the smut they desired, but sites punting scareware scams.
These scams generally rely on manipulating search engines for any search terms relating to recent news stories, such as the most recent death of Nodar Kumaritashvili, the Georgian luger who died in the practise run at the Winter Olympics. Unfortunately, these results are poisoned, so that users attempting to view this video, are redirected to anti-virus scan scam portals, tricking users into purchasing useless scamware.
The research completed by Symantec suggests this black hat SEO approach has been used as a route to the market for the scareware slingers for people searching for smut via social networks.
The report also showed that a high volume of spam and phishing relating to the Haiti Earthquake last month, proving once again that fraudsters will latch onto any human tragedy as a fast track money making scheme.