Cybercriminals taking advantage of concerns about health care and swine flu

[David Baxter PhD]

McAfee Labs? October Spam Report
by David Marcus
Monday October 12, 2009

Cybercriminals are taking advantage of American concerns about healthcare by flooding the internet with spam. According to our October Spam Report, 70 percent of global spam is now "Canadian" pharmacy spam that takes advantage of fears of Swine Flu and rising costs of Medicare and pharmaceuticals.

Spammers generate more than 150 billion spam messages daily; that?s enough to send everyone in the world more than 30 emails every day (including people without computers). Nearly 19 out of every 20 emails are spam, and cybercriminals are growing more sophisticated with their attacks. No brands seem to be safe, and this month?s report analyzes how spammers are abusing the brands of Monopoly, The Hollywood Reporter and even the Jewish organization Chabad to distribute malware.

The report can be downloaded here .

 

[Banned]

Ya know, if they're going to spam us with boring crap, that's one thing, but preying on people's vulnerabilities and putting their health at risk is a whole other ballgame.

I realize that that's what makes spam as minutely successful as it is, but, geez people...get a conscience.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

It's not just about spam. It's also about malware - viruses, trojans, worms, etc.

 

[Banned]

That too. But I don't understand the benefit of spreading any of that stuff...???

 

[David Baxter PhD]

That too. But I don't understand the benefit of spreading any of that stuff...???

Two reasons:

1. harassment for fun and notoriety
2. financial gain from stealing passwords, credit card information, bank logins, and the like

See http://forum.psychlinks.ca/computer...5-malicious-spam-dominates-email-traffic.html

 

[Banned]

That's disturbing on so many levels.