Fake Conflicker.B Infection Alert puts internet users at risk

Graham Cluley
Graham Cluley
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The global network of spamtraps controlled by the experts inside SophosLabs are seeing a swarm of attacks today, posing as an email warning about the Conficker worm.

Here is a typical message that has been spammed out by hackers:

Subject: Conflicker.B Infection Alert
Attached file: open.zip

Message body:

Dear Microsoft Customer,

Starting 12/11/2009 the “˜Conficker’ worm began infecting Microsoft customers unusually rapidly. Microsoft has been advised by your Internet provider that your network is infected.

To counteract further spread we advise removing the infection using an antispyware program. We are supplying all effected Windows Users with a free system scan in order to clean any files infected by the virus.

Please install attached file to start the scan. The process takes under a minute and will prevent your files from being compromised. We…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky, or drop him an email.