Web users are being warned about a widely spammed e-mail
teaser promising a trailer of the film
‘Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End’, and
the chance of free tickets.
The e-mail, which contains the familiar skull-and-crossbones
logo of the film franchise, has been targeted at movie-goers in
Europe and North America,
said internet security software firm Sophos.
Rather than a trailer, the e-mail has a copy of the
Troj/Yar-A Trojan horse attached. If cinema fans
run the attached file they are shown a fake error message and the
Trojan horse downloads malicious code from the internet while
disabling anti-virus software.
"There is no film preview and there are no free tickets," said
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.
"The only thing that this e-mail is trailing is an attack wave
of malicious code against your PC.
"Once your computer is compromised, hackers will be able to
steal information from you with the aim of identity theft and other
crimes," he said.
In the past, viruses have posed as Harry Potter movies.
View an image of the Pirates Trojan on the
Sophos website >>
David Lacey’s
security blog >>
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