Spam run frightens with fake news about epidemic

The time has come again for users to be targeted with spam emails alerting them to an epidemic raging in some part of the world:

The subject line contains a simple “Fwd/Re: Epidemic in X” – X being variety of countries around the world including Afghanistan, Australia, Syria, Taiwan, Venezuela or some of the United States of America – and the email says that in order to avoid getting infected the recipient should take the precautions supposedly hosted on a page to which a link is offered.

Of course, the page is far from helpful and, according to Symantec, actually hosts a malicious script file that can exploit certain vulnerabilities in the target’s system if downloaded and run.

Users are advised always to be skeptical of claims contained in unsolicited emails, and especially when the sender tries to make the recipient afraid. Following links contained in such emails is practically guaranteed to end up badly for the users – whether they take them to a phishing site or one that hosts malware.