Don't get feathers ruffled by bird flu spam

Stan Beer
Thursday, 27 October 2005 11:00

Business IT - Security

Security specialist Sophos is warning internet users in Australia and New Zealand to avoid being sucked in by spam preying on people's fears about bird flu.

Sophos's spamtraps are picking up an increasing number of junk messages which claim to sell Tamiflu, the drug believed most effective at protecting humans from the H591 strain of the bird flu virus. The drug is in high demand because of fears that the virus could become a pandemic, and spread further around the region after deaths in Asia.
 
Representatives of Roche, the Swiss pharmaceutical company which produces Tamiflu, say they have received reports of internet sales of drugs which purport to be Tamiflu but are in fact bogus. The American Medical Association and British Medical Association are campaigning to alert consumers about the risks of purchasing drugs online.
 
SophosLabs spamtraps in Australia have also picked up messages aggressively talking up the stock of a company which has recently announced disinfectant products effective against bird flu and SARS.
 
"Stock pump-and-dump spammers seek out and exploit press releases from legitimate companies, and the brand names of legally-trading investment advisors," explains Paul Ducklin, head of technology for Sophos, Asia Pacific, in Sydney. "They create realistic-looking short term 'investment advice' in the hope of pumping a stock enough to offload their own shares at a profit. The increasing quantity and sophistication of pump-and-dump campaigns suggests that there is plenty of money to be made. Of course, the companies which were talked up, and their legitimate investors, are left to bear the after-effects of the stock dump."