Beware Hijacked Headlines In Email News Alerts
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Attackers are using real headlines in an attempt to fool email users into clicking links to virus-delivering web sites.
Using data-mining techniques, attackers insert real breaking-news headlines into spam email messages designed to get you to "click through" and unwittingly infect your computer. These spam emails may mimic the look of Google Alerts or other news services, or may simply contain a real headline plus a link to a malicious site. Once you click, your computer may be infected with a virus or Trojan horse.
One way to see if a link is legitimate is to mouse over, but NOT click, the link, then look in the status bar of your email program or web browser to see where that link goes. For example, if the alert pretends to be from Google but it goes to somewhere other than google.com, it may be fake.
Your best bet is to avoid clicking on any emailed news link, and instead going to the news site manually by typing the address, then clicking the link to the article.
With elections there is plenty of breaking news, so be sure to watch out for this scam.
Posted byTriona Guidry at 6:06 AM
Labels: alerts, consumers, Internet, phishing, security