E-mail and Internet users are still falling for spam e-mail that promises nudity, but directs people to Web sites hosting malware, says Panda Security.
The company says the latest such invitations to do the rounds promises erotic pictures of celebrities such as Britney Spears, Rihanna and Shakira as bait to spread the Agent.IMB Trojan.
These e-mails are simple: they have subjects such as "naked Shakira clip", "Rihanna exposed" or "Scarlett Johansson spills boobs", and include a link with the text "Download and Watch", says Panda's sub-Saharan chief Jeremy Matthews.
If the user clicks the link, they will download a copy of the Agent.IMB Trojan to their computer. This malicious code copies itself to the system under the name "CbEvtSvc.exe" and creates a service with the same name to run whenever the system is started up.
"Although this social engineering technique is not new at all, given the number of cyber crooks that keep using it, it is clear that there are still many users who fall into the trap," says Matthews.
"Malware creators sometimes use the same kind of e-mail to spread different malware strains, so it wouldn't be surprising to find junk mail like this being used over the next few days to distribute other malicious codes such as downloader and banker Trojans."
To avoid falling victim to this type of attack, he advises users not to open any e-mail messages that come from unknown sources, or click any links that these may contain.
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