Rumours spread malware via email

Though reports of Britney Spears' extreme new hairstyle have turned out to be true, security experts have warned that emails claiming Australian Prime Minister John Howard has survived a heart attack are fake.

Spamming gangs have been sending out emails with sensational headlines in the hope of convincing recipients to click on links within the email that lead to a web page containing malware.

The supposed 'breaking news' reports claim that John Howard was taken ill and rushed to hospital in Sydney, "where the best surgeons of Australia are struggling for his life". The links within the email are spoofed URLs that look to be from The Australian, a daily newspaper.

This is by no means a new trick, according to security experts. In the past well-known figures including Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Regan have been the subject of similar scams.

"It seems the hackers are back to their old tricks of spamming out sensational headlines in the hope that computer users will forget to think before they click, and visit the website hosting the malignant code," said Graham Cluley of security firm Sophos.

"The scammers have registered several domain names that appear to be associated with 'The Australian' newspaper, and have gone to effort to make people think that they really are visiting the genuine site by pointing to the real error page," said Cluley.

http://www.sophos.com/

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