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Phishers target gamers

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer
Johannesburg, 29 May 2008

Phishers are sending out e-mails spoofing free Internet mail provider Webmail and warning recipients they have to reply with their name, user ID and password, or have their accounts permanently closed three days after the date of the mail.

Panda Security sub-Sahara spokesman Alex Matthews says this is a new variation on an old theme. "We've spoken to the guys at our laboratory, PandaLabs, and they say that this isn't a new trend - just a continuation of an old one. Again we see these phishers attempting to mine confidential data for financial profit," he says.

"Obviously people are continuing to fall for it, as there are no signs of phishing as a phenomenon abating."

Meanwhile, Panda sub-Sahara head Jeremy Matthews says phishers are also stepping up the targeting of gamers, with the third and fifth most common malware spread last month, the Trojan Lineage. BZE and Lineage.ICL are designed to affect users of the online game "Lineage".

The top two malware samples encountered on the Web in SA last month, says Matthews, were adware Netproject and VideoAddon. Both are designed to display advertisements or pop-ups to users during their browsing. "This consumes bandwidth unnecessarily and results in an extremely annoying Internet experience," says Matthews.

"Unscrupulous businesses pay code creators to create malware that promotes their products. This is yet another example of the new malware business model which is profit-driven."

The top ten viruses:

* Netproject (adware)
* VideoAddon (adware)
* Lineage.BZE (Trojan)
* Gator (adware)
* W32/Lineage.ICL (worm)
* SpyBurner (adware)
* Downloader.MDW (Trojan)
* W32/Brontok.P.(worm)
* SecurityError (adware)
* UltimateDefender (adware)

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