Worried about Swine Flu? If so, don’t let your fear and anxiety dupe you into clicking dubious links in emails. Spammers are increasingly using Swine Flu in subject lines and messages to take advantage of people’s fears of the rapidly-spreading Influenza strain, according to McAfee’s Advert Labs Blog.
Prior to last weekend, Swine Flu spam was practically unheard of. But since Monday, the volume of such spam had exploded, according to McAfee’s David Marcus. The largest chunk of Swine Flu spam originates in Brazil, but sizable portions also came from the United States and United Kingdom. Subject lines include “Madonna caught swine flu!,” “US swine flu statistics,” and “Swine flu in USA.”
Swine Flu spam isn’t necessarily pushing antiviral drugs; some spam links to sites peddling malware (such as one site that tries to install a fake codec trojan). If you receive any such emails, don’t click any links or open any attachments.
This form of spam is not uncommon with hot news topics. Avoid clicking on any subject with the Swine Flu.
Take everyday actions to stay healthy:
- Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
- Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hands cleaners are also effective.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread that way.
- Stay home if you get sick. Stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.
- Follow public health advice regarding school closures, avoiding crowds and other social distancing measures.
- Develop a family emergency plan as a precaution. This should include storing a supply of food, medicines, facemasks, alcohol-based hand rubs and other essential supplies.
We all need to stay safe and more importantly, healthy.
Nice article Frank, job well done.
Panic is something no one needs right now, there’s just too much trouble in the world as it is. I would like to mention that genuine sites on this matter are going to be difficult to find with the recent domains, especially from a search engine results page.
Being in the USA, I know of one site that will always have accurate information and that is: http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/key_facts.htm
peace,
G7W
G7W,
Welcome my friend of WOT. It’s a shame that we have people in our society that would do something like this.
The swine flu isn’t anything worse than regular flu from what I understand. A few days before I got married, I had a stomach flu, and the doctor asked me all sorts of questions, including whether I had been to Mexico. Now I understand why… they must have known about it before word got out everywhere. And everyone is cashing in, down to buying out masks just to resell them later.
~ Kristi
I am glad the doctor asked all those questions. It’s a shame we live in a society that sometimes takes advantage of situations like this to exploit others.
the spread of AH1N1 or Swine Flu is really scary. It is a good thing that this virus is not very deadly. We are advised to take Vitamin-C and to wear face masks.
i always advice my kids to wear face masks when going into crowded areas. swine flu is really scary and i dont want my kids getting infected by it.