Latest Email Spam: Fraudulent emails telling to register for CDC-sponsored vaccination program
McAfee and CDC (Centers for Disease Control and prevention) have given warnings to the users to avoid an email claiming to contain a register information for state vaccination program. The email will claim that CDC has launched a vaccination program to deal with a latest H1N1 outbreak and people with ages greater than 18 must register. The register button will download Zeus Trojan on your computer.
To make things clear, CDC has announced that there is no such national program. On it’s website, CDC has mentioned:
The CDC has NOT implemented a state vaccination program requiring registration on www.cdc.gov. Users that click on the email are at risk of having malicious code installed on their system. CDC reminds users to take the following steps to reduce the risk of being a victim of a phishing attack:
- Do not follow unsolicited links and do not open or respond to unsolicited email messages.
- Use caution when visiting un-trusted websites.
- Use caution when entering personal information online.
McAfee on its Labs blog has also given similar warning giving an example of such a malicious email. To those who don’t know about Zeus Trojan, it is a parasite which writes itself in the boot sectors and make changes in the system such as changing the font of the system.
As mentioned on McAfee Labs blog, the email might be received with the following subjects and it is expected to have different subjects as the spam spreads.
Governmental registration program on the H1N1 vaccination
State Vaccination H1N1 Program
Your personal Vaccination Profile
Create your personal Vaccination Profile
State Vaccination Program
Creation of personal Vaccination Profile
Instructions on creation of your personal Vaccination Profile
Creation of your personal Vaccination Profile
So, be aware and verify the email before clicking any link in it.
( Write an email to the author of this post at adnan@techskipper.com )
CDC, H1N1, H1N1 virus, mcafe, vaccination