Beware Hallmark e-cards

By Leon Engelbrecht for Symantec
Johannesburg, 24 Jul 2008

Security vendors say Internet users are still falling for spam e-mail containing malware, because it often fools them by appearing real or by piquing their curiosity.

Symantec senior business intelligence analyst Amanda Grady says greeting card spam remains a favourite. "Last year, some of the popular greeting sites were spoofed; Hallmark has been targeted more recently."

Panda Security sub-Saharan head of operations Alex Matthews says the Hallmark hoax and others like it "exploit the naivety of PC users through masquerading as a genuine e-mail".

He says Panda encourages users to be very suspicious of unsolicited e-mails. "If you`re not sure of a message`s validity, Google it or check with a security vendor to find out whether it is 'kosher` or not.

"Also, read the message carefully, and watch out for spelling mistakes, as well as whether there are attachments. Hallmark, for example, does not send e-cards with attachments," Matthews says.

Grady says a hoax Hallmark e-card, currently doing the rounds, has an attachment called postcard.zip which icontains a Backdoor.Trojan.

"Another with the same subject has no attachment and requests the user to click on a link to view the e-card. The link brings the user to a malicious site."