Romanian President Declared Dead by E-mail Scam

Hoax e-mails relay the false news that Romanian President, Traian Basescu, was disfigured and killed following a car accident. These are just the latest in a line of scams aimed at exploiting celebrity status to drive users to malware.

BUCHAREST, Romania – May 31, 2011 - A recently discovered spam wave banks on Romanian president’s image to help spread a malicious bot allowing its creators to take control over the infected systems. The unsolicited e-mail relies on a classic combination of social engineering tricks: promised photo content and awe inducing events, specialists from Bucharest-based antivirus producer BitDefender say.

This is only one example in a longer series of malware dissemination schemes using celebrity or public figure baits. One such recent spam wave promised to show video or photo content depicting the death of Al Qaida leader, Osama bin Laden. Another breaking news event put to the same malicious use is the incident involving Barak Obama’s car, which took place during the USA President’s visit to Ireland.

“Using celebrities and sensational stories as bait for downloading malware is a popular tactic, and highlights how the social engineering element of a scam is often key to whether it succeeds or fails.” declares Catalin Cosoi, Head of the BitDefender Online Threat Labs.

 “The malware component embedded in this particular message is highly complex, and it enables the installation of a bot on the victim’s computer. Having secured control over the respective machine, the cybercriminal can download files from it, access the victim’s private information as well as track the victim’s keystrokes. This would eventually result in the theft of essential data, such as passwords, credit card series or other confidential data”, adds Cosoi.     

The Romanian version of these celebrity-themed scams also boasts a very interesting source, namely Antena 3, one of the most popular TV stations in Romania. The spam message is spoofing one of the TV station’s e-mail services, which adds to the credibility of the scam.

All BitDefender users are now protected against this threat, identified as Dropped:Trojan.Fakealert.13085 by BitDefender specialists. The best way to stay safe from the latest and most complex e-threats is to install and use an updated antimalware suite complete with a firewall, an antivirus scanner and an antispam filter. BitDefender Internet Security 2011 is now available for a 40 day free trial.