CDC Alerts Americans of Fake Email Asking Them to
Enroll in H1N1 Vaccination Program
Scam drops code in your computer; claims to be registering for a non-existent
state program
Dec. 7, 2009 - The Centers for Disease Control and
Preventions, which is the lead agency in battling seasonal flu, H1N1
(swine flu) and most other diseases in the U.S. has alerted the media to
a scam email cruising the Internet attempting to fool Americans into
revealing personal information. Those who click on the link are
downloading a
malicious code on their system.
The CDC said Friday it has received reports of
fraudulent emails (phishing) referencing a CDC sponsored State
Vaccination Program for H1N1. There is no such program.
The messages request that users create a personal
H1N1 (swine flu) Vaccination Profile on the CDC.gov Website.
An example of the phishing email is below:
|
Subject: State Vaccination Program
You have received this email because of the launching
of State Vaccination H1N1 Program.
You need to create your personal H1N1 (swine flu)
Vaccination Profile on the cdc.gov site. This profile
has to be created both for the vaccinated people and the
non-vaccinated ones. This profile is used for the
registering system of vaccinated and not-vaccinated
people. Create your Personal H1N1 Vaccination Profile
using the link:
Create Personal Profile |
Users that click on the embedded link in the
email are at risk of having malicious code installed on their
system.
CDC reminds users to take the following steps
to reduce the risk of being a victim of a phishing attack:
> Do not open or respond to unsolicited
email messages.
> Do not click links embedded in emails
from unknown senders.
> Use caution when entering personal
information online.
> Update anti-virus, spyware, firewall,
and anti-spam software regularly.
