E-mail Scams Claiming Celebrity Deaths Are Circulating

CULVER CITY, Calif., Aug. 24 /PRNewswire/ —

                  New waves of e-mails with shocking subject lines that are
                  nearly impossible to resist opening are making the
    WHAT/WHY:     rounds.

                 Examples of these subject lines include:
                 -- Beyonce Knowles Fatal Car Crash
                 -- Brad Pitt Fatal Car Crash
                 -- Johnny Depp died
                 -- Madonna Fatal Car Crash
                 -- Oprah Winfrey Fatal Car Crash
                 -- Tiger Woods died

                  Some of the morbid e-mail messages also add that the
                  celebrity has died along with 34 other people when their
                  plane carrying the group on a trip crashed into a
                  mountainside while approaching the airport.

                  For further details about these celebrity deaths,
                  recipients are asked to open an attachment.

                  Cybercriminals are distributing this false news in order
                  to spread viruses using HTML or zipped attachments that
                  can carry malicious software ("Malware") hoping to gain
                  access to people's computers and steal their personal
                  information.

                  One of the threats attached to these particular e-mails
                  (Trojan.Zbot) has primarily been designed to steal
                  confidential information from the computers it infects.
                  It specifically targets system information, online
                  credentials, and banking details, but can be customized
                  by the criminal to gather any sort of information on the
                  infected computer.
                 --------------------------------------------------------

                  Norton data shows that this kind of ".zip attachment spam"
                  has more than doubled in recent weeks!

                  More information is available on the Security Response
                  Blog.

                  Norton experts are on hand to share tips with users on how
                  they can protect themselves from these kinds of scams
    EXPERTS:      including:
                  --  Install spam filtering/blocking software. Antispam
                  software separates spam from legitimate messages.
                  --   Do not respond to suspicious e-mails. If you
                  suspect an e-mail is spam, delete it. Do not click on e-
                  mail links asking to be removed from the sender's list.
                  Sometimes unsubscribe links don't work, and any sort of
                  response only confirms your e-mail address and may
                  result in more unwanted messages.
                  --   Set up a disposable e-mail address. Have a
                  secondary address for public use, such as online
                  registration and e-commerce sites. Set up the secondary
                  address to forward e-mails to your primary account.

    IMAGES:      Sample images of these messages available upon request

    WHEN:        Interviews with Norton experts available upon request

    CONTACT:     Gerritt Hoekman
                 Edelman for Norton
                 323-202-1895
                 Gerritt.Hoekman@Edelman.com

SOURCE Norton