Scammers Cash In On Swine Flu Fear Factor
"Be wary of Internet sites selling products that claim to prevent, treat or cure 2009 H1N1 flu virus, and [the FDA] is informing offending Web sites that they must take prompt action to correct and/or remove promotions of these fraudulent products or face immediate enforcement action," the agency said on its site.
The FDA is also encouraging the public to report suspected fraudulent and illegal activity relating to FDA-regulated products associated with swine flu.
Exploiting people's fears about the flu is not surprising given the global nature of botnets and spam, according to David Marcus, director of security research and communications at IT security firm McAfee.
Brazil is now the No. 1 source of spam related to swine flu, McAfee said. The spammers use the name and logo of the largest TV network in Brazil, Rede Globo, to catch users' attention. The U.S. and Germany are also generating a great deal of flu spam.
"Social engineering is one of the most successful and dangerous tools at the spammer's disposal and it is very hard to protect against," Marcus said on a company blog.
McAfee research found that 5 percent of all spam sent around the world now uses swine flu in the subject line.
"[This] is an astonishing increase, given that the phrase had never appeared before Monday," wrote Marcus on a company blog.
"Many people may not realize that the words "swine" and "flu" had really not been seen in spam before this past weekend and almost certainly not together in the same subject line. "Bear in mind that is not daily volume growth but rather the growth in its use as a subject."
Additionally, McAfee has found sites with the words "swine" and "flu" pushing malware as well. In those cases, users are redirected to a Russian-based site that requires "our old friend the fake codec be installed to view [a] movie," Marcus said.
Some spam subject lines to be wary of:
- Salma Hayek caught swine flu!
- U.S. Swine Flu Statistics
- Obama Was In Mexico For Swine Flu Outbreak
McAfee has posted screenshotsof swine flu spams and their links to very realistic e-pharmacy sites.
Marcus points out that the e-mails are mostly text and links, and also use popular keywords, such as Salma Hayek (the Mexican actress) and President Barack Obama.
Marcus also found that the links point to the cn domain. "Yes, .cn is China, but they are all redirects," Marcus said. "When I looked at the Internic registry info, it was a round-robin of Chinese and Russian domains and NS records." The Web page that pops up is that of a supposed Canadian e-pharmacy.
"These people are bottom feeders," Marcus said. "They will use any high-media event or high-impact news story to push their wares, including the sickness and misery of others. Stay vigilant and stay safe. Should you need credible information on the influenza pandemic, then go to the World Health Organization Web site."