Four Dangerous Ebola Related Email Scams That You Should Watch Out For

Cyber criminals have resorted to phishing emails to infect, take over and steal from their target victims. Despite an increase in public awareness, hackers are finding new and improved methods to deceive people. Ebola emails are the latest method used by these criminals to attack victims across the Internet.

By using news on this disease, cyber criminals have managed to attack numerous users on the internet. Check out below the four types of attacks that you should look out for.

Fake Reports on the Ebola Virus

The first and most common method used by criminals happens to be an email containing fake reports on the Ebola virus. Upon opening the email, users would be asked to click on a link to read more about the report. Upon doing so, their computers will be infected by the Trojan.Zbot malware.

The malware can affect different versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system and aims at stealing sensitive user information such as usernames, passwords, banking details and more.

Telecom Company Impersonation

Through this method, criminals impersonate major telecommunications companies and send emails which contain detailed presentations on the Ebola virus. Along with the email is an attached zip file with a title such as 'EBOLA – PRESENTATION.pdf.zip'.

Upon downloading this file, a Trojan.Blueso is executed onto the user's PC. It affects your web browser straight off and then goes on to inject W32.Spyrat into it as well. This allows attackers to control your PC remotely by recording your keystrokes, pictures and videos from your web camera, screenshots, web pages and much more. They can even download and upload files from your PC through this method.

Fresh Ebola Related News

There's a good chance that you've heard of Zmapp, which happens to be a promising Ebola drug still in an experimental stage. Attackers send emails with fresh news on Zmapp or other drugs, claiming that Ebola has been cured. The email then insists that you forward this message to other people to spread the knowledge.

What most people don't realise is that the email contains the Backdoor.Breut malware, which records keystrokes and proceeds to download more corrupted files onto your PC.

Fake CNN Campaign

With this method, attackers blend CNN, Ebola and an unhealthy dose of terrorism to tell an "untold story". There's a brief version in the email and there are links which promise to lead you to the entire one. The email also includes a "How-to" link that explains what kind of precautions you can take and a list of "targeted" regions.

Is there a new method that we've missed? Let us know about it in the comments section below.

Source: FirstPost