10 Celebrity scams to avoid

Here’s a list of 10 celebrity scams that cybercriminals and hackers are using to hide malware and infect computers with malicious code. Make sure you avoid them!

Emma Stone

Cybercriminals have infected exploited searches that look for pictures of the Zombieland actress naked or use terms like ‘Emma Stone nude’. The pages actually contain rogueware and also prompt false warning messages to appear on the iPhone.

Madonna

Emails promising an XXX-rated video of pop superstar Madonna actually contain a file that will infect your computer with a Trojan horse.

Britney Spears

A video of Britney Spears, supposedly naked, was being spread by email a couple of years ago. It was actually an attempt by hackers to get people to install malicious code on to their PCs.

Patrick Swayze

Following the Dirty Dancing star’s death, hackers exploited people searching for the news by using ‘SEO poisoning’ to push infected sites up the results list in search engines. The links actually sent people to infected sites.

Megan Fox

Comments on several YouTube videos that promised a link to a ’sex tape’ allegedly showing the Transformers star sent people to a site that asks you to fill in personal details and a survey.

Ashley Greene

Following naked images of the Twilight star being circulated, forum threads and search results were infected to take people to a compromised website that even recognised what operating system they were using so to give them the appropriate infection.

Angelina Jolie

A spam email claiming to provide a direct link to a nude video of Angelina Jolie infected PCs with spyware that steals usernames and passwords and sends to them to a remote location, where malware writers can retrieve them.

Serena Williams

After the tennis star’s outburst during her semi-final match with Kim Clijsters at the US Open, hackers used an SEO-based malware to infect searches for the video.

Stephen Gately

Cybercriminals are using news reports about the death of pop star Stephen Gately to hide malware. The malware warns that you have been infected and prompts you to install a product to remove it, which they ask you to pay for.

Paris Hilton

The heiress is another female celebrity whose name was used as bait in an online scam. Emails with subject lines such as Paris Hilton Free Video, which promised clips of the star naked, were being used to contaminate PCs with viruses.

via webuser.co.uk

• Kate Beckinsale