Given the ominous subject line, “Take care about yourself!” [sic], fear mixed with excitement might propel some recipients to disregard security consequences and click on URLs that link to malware. In this recent spam example, geo-location services were used to target the recipients of the message. Depending on the relative location of the message recipient, the location of the fake terrorist attack mentioned in the text of the message differs.
In one particular location the spammer indicated that there was a “Powerful explosion burst in San Pablo this morning,” and in another they indicated that there was a “Powerful explosion burst in Pune this morning.” Then, there is a brief description of the “attack” including, “At least 12 people have been killed and more than 40 wounded in a bomb blast“ and “explosion was caused by 'dirty' bomb.” The logo of a prominent news wire service was added to try and bring a sense of authenticity. Human curiosity might prevail for some users as they were instructed by the spammer, “You need the latest Flash player to view video content. Click here to download.” Users should not click on this link as it contains a link to downloadable malware. The link between malware and spam should not be underestimated. Spammers have long used this connection to target unsuspecting recipients.
Spammers often rely on the effects of human curiosity to tempt recipients into opening spam messages and clicking on a link or taking some other action. In this instance, spammers believe that keeping spam local will enable them to achieve this aim.