Cyber crime experts have warned users of the upsurge in spam and virus-loaded emails this month, luring netizens with prizes, especially with the festive season going on
Cyber crime experts have warned users of the upsurge in spam and virus-loaded emails this month, luring netizens with prizes, especially with the festive season going on
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It won' be easy surfing the internet this month as the mega events in Delhi and the festive season has provoked massive cyber attacks in the Capital.
The death of Steve Jobs has also drawn attention of lot of Indian netizens to look for information online.
MiD DAY reports
Recently, MID DAY had reported how Lakshmi Nagar resident Hemant Mehta fell prey to the online Formula-1 spam.
He could not believe his luck when he received an SMS which said that Formula-1 organisers had selected his number and that he was eligible to get free tickets to the mega games carnival to be held in Greater Noida.
But when he called back on the number to claim his reward, Hemant sensed some foul play and discovered that it was a fraud.
Similarly, cyber crime experts have noticed attractive shopping deals, most of which are fake and have reportedly harmful viruses and Trojans.
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"During this time, a large portion of the Indian population will be out shopping and looking for holiday deals. We have started noticing spam messages that offer discounts related to Diwali.
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Interestingly, spammers are sending the same internet offers, but in the form of Diwali discounts.
In the process, spammers attach malware to their emails by adorning them with a greeting or discount tag, attracting recipients to click on them, which in reality results in unleashing of a virus on their system," said Delhi based cyber crime expert Vivek Vohra, who claims there would be an increase in 40 per cent of spam this month.
This is not all, as online scammers are attempting to cash in on the death of Steve Jobs by offering fans pictures from his funeral, free iPads in his memory and links to purported memorial sites that actually contain malware.
One spam on Facebook purported to offer free iPads in memory of Jobs and was posted just two hours after the Apple legend died on Wednesday.
Cashing in on death
According to the information, at least 25,000 people from 100 countries had already clicked on the link, which took them to a survey site where they had to fill out in order to qualify for the nonexistent prizes.
One such scam, spotted by researcher Dmitri Bestuzhev from the security firm Kaspersky Lab, is a fake contest you can enter for a chance to win 15" MacBook Pros in the memory of Steve Jobs.
Beneath the enticing offer is a space to enter one's email address. While you won't win a new laptop, the chances of you winning a whole new batch of spam emails are high.
Another part of the scam, Bestuzhev found, was the chance to see exclusive photos and video footage from Steve Jobs' funeral.
Below a header reading, "The Life, Death, and Legacy of Steve Jobs," the message says, "Video footage and images will be uploaded here live from the funeral ceremony. Come back each day to see if they are posted."
Jobs' death sparked an incredible surge of comments on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites, with Twitter alone generating some 2.5 million mourning tweets since Jobs' death.u00a0u00a0u00a0
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