Cyber crooks dupe victims with bogus Microsoft security alerts

Webroot has detected a new wave of bogus Microsoft-themed cyber scams, looking to dupe web users with bogus security notifications.

The security firm reported detecting a number of scams targeting users with malware-laden messages masquerading as alerts from Microsoft in a blog post on Tuesday.

"Recently we have seen an increase in fake Microsoft scams, which function by tricking people into thinking that their PC is infected," wrote Webroot's Roy Tobin. He added that the cyber crooks use a variety of techniques to get the messages in front of their victims.

"There are a number of ways to figure out that this is a false alert. The first is that it's a website message and not a program; the second is that location of the website will be a random string of letters," he said.

"These websites will normally only stay active for 24-48 hours before they are pulled down. The websites' primary function is to get you to run a ‘removal tool' called ‘security cleaner'. This file is the infection and, if ran, will infect the PC and start displaying pop-ups."

The Webroot researcher said that the scams are not terribly advanced, and as long as users don't click on the malicious messages they will stay safe.

"At this stage [when the message appears], the PC is not infected so it's safe to close the browser and ignore any alerts from the website. Noting the website that displayed the message is good idea as you can notify the webmaster (if it's a legitimate website)," wrote Tobin.

Microsoft is one of many big brands used by cyber criminals to make the phishing messages look more legitimate. Last month, McAfee detected a cyber scam that used Facebook and LinkedIn to spread malware.

Source:V3