On May 13, 2014, another album of Michael Jackson , titled Xscape, was released. This reissue of Jackson's collection of songs had been eagerly anticipated by music fans since its announcement in March 2014. News of the album's release made Michael Jackson's name front and center, and spammers, as expected, were quick to exploit it.
This spam campaign uses a simple email that is designed to look like a personal email. It uses Michael Jackson’s name and some of his song titles to create catchy messages for the subject line of the email. The content of the email contains a link along with a general comment. The message is signed by a name, as shown in Figure 1, in an attempt to give the impression that someone you know sent you the email with the link to Jackson’s new album. The URL in the body of the email redirects you to a fake pharmacydomain that promises cheap over-the-counter medications.
Below you will see some of the topics that appear in the subject line:
- Subject: $ Planet Earth (Michael Jackson poem) $
- Subject: *List of songs by MichaelJackson*
- Subject: * List of unreleased Michael Jackson songs *
- Subject: [ Hold My Hand (songs by Michael Jackson and Akon) ]
Figure 1. Example of spamemail about MichaelJackson
Symantec expects more spam in the near future that exploits this news and believes it is part of phishing attempts or contains malware.
Symantec advises users to adhere to the following best practices:
- Do not open emails from unknown senders
- Do not click on links from suspicious emails
- Never give personal information to suspicious websites, as they may have been created for phishing purposes
- Keep their security software updated to stay protected from phishing and malware attacks
