Trick, No Treat: Halloween is Playground for Hackers
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CREDIT: Dreamstime |
Halloween is a hacker's dream and a ghoulish nightmare for gullible computer users, according to security experts.
With the holiday just over a week away, computer spammers are ramping up their inventory of tasty treats, sending out malicious emails with enticing titles like: Open this! $1 Million Prize, Win Millions this Halloween, Halloween Treat Bags, Home Decorations, and More, and Low Price Sexy Halloween Costumes Sale!!! Free Shipping, Free Gift!
When these links are clicked, however, users are directed to pages that harvest email addresses and personal information, wrote Samir Patil of antivirus maker Symantec.
Don't let Halloween haunt you for the rest of the year, Patil wrote.
This Halloween hacker campaign comes on the heels of a scam targeting the upcoming Harry Potter film, in which promises of free tickets turned out to contain corrupted links.
It is common knowledge in the security community that spammers use culturally relevant topics and even knowledge of a user's online behavior to trick people into clicking fraudulent links and divulging personal information. Experts advise people to update their antivirus protection and to be aware of suspicious emails, no matter the treats they promise.
