Hurricane Katrina has spawned more than misery and destruction–a new wave of scam e-mails and Web sites are exploiting the tragedy.
Phony Web sites and e-mails, purporting to offer help to hurricane victims or provide more news on the destruction, are making their rounds on the Internet, security experts said Thursday.
One spam campaign that’s circulating offers breaking news reports but tricks people into clicking a link that takes them to a bogus Web site, according to security firm Sophos. The site attempts to exploit vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer and install malicious code, including the Troj/Cgab-A Trojan horse, on a victim’s system Sophos said.
Some of these e-mails carry subject headers such as “re: g8 Tropical storm flooded New Orleans” and “re: q1 Katrina killed as many as 80 people.”
“If users click on the link contained inside the e-mail, they will be taken to a malicious Web site which will try and infect their computer,” Graham Cluely, senior technology consultant for Sophos, said in a statement. “Once infected, the computer is under the control of remote criminal hackers who can use it to spy, steal or cause disruption.”
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