Elizabeth Taylor’s Death Triggers Spam Campaign

Author: Brian Donohue
minute read

Yesterday we learned that Elizabeth Taylor, an American icon for some seven decades, died of congestive heart failure at 79. Today, Kaspersky Lab expert Dmitry Bestuzhev informs us that the news of her death is being exploited via social engineering scams on Twitter.

Elizabeth TaylorYesterday we learned that Elizabeth Taylor, an American icon for some seven decades, died of congestive heart failure at 79. Today, Kaspersky Lab expert Dmitry Bestuzhev informs us that the news of her death is being exploited via social engineering scams on Twitter.

The scam uses a shortened, malicious link that has been in circulation since November of 2010, and has been used in various pay-per-click scams by the same affiliate program.

If nothing else, the scam proves Elizabeth Taylor was an international star, as the phishing scam successfully lured and hooked individuals from 48 countries.

This news comes with little surprise, as trends of exploiting high profile world events to propagate phishing scams and spread malware becomes more and more commonplace.

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