Fake quake spam warning

Surfers shoud not open emails that claim to be informing them of a disaster which has rocked China, according to security firm Sophos.

Spammers have devised new campaigns focusing on the Beijing Olympics and the recent earthquake in China to spread malware and junk emails.

With the Olympics just over a month away, a new email is circulating the web informing users that "a new powerful disaster" in China is threatening to derail the summer games.

According to the fictitious email a second earthquake, with a force nine magnitude, "has took away millions of lives in the heart of China, Beijing [sic]".

The message contains a link to a site in the .cn domain from which surfers can supposedly obtain extra information via a video. But opening the link will execute files that contain malware, infecting the user's computer, according to Sophos.

"With the recent China Earthquake in Szchuen still fresh in people’s memory, many would open the file without a second thought," Sophos said.

www.sophos.com