Easter greetings deliver malware

The days leading up to major religious holidays are when you should be more careful with the contents of your inbox.

One malicious spam run recently spotted by McAfee consists of a cute image of bunnies, chicks and colored eggs, complete with the offer to download the animated greeting by clicking on the offered link:

The subject line reads “Easter Greeting From Alex”, and people who actually do know an Alex might be forgiven if they clicked through, since the e-mail address from which the message was supposedly sent and the domain name embossed in the image lead to what seems like a legitimate greeting service.

But, the link and the image don’t take the unfortunate user to that website, but to one that triggers the download of a piece of malware that most likely steals personal and financial information from the victim’s computer.

I must admit that this spam message does seem rather legitimate at first glance – there are no spelling mistakes and the aforementioned domain from which the message has supposedly been sent doesn’t trigger any alarm bells.

But in any case, if you do know an Alex (or any other person from which the greeting is seemingly from), it is a good idea to contact him or her independently of that e-mail and ask them if they did, indeed, sent it.