H1N1 Flu Virus Phishing Scam

Posted on 03. Dec, 2009 by M.L. Zupan in Feature, Health & Nutrition

OKLAHOMA CITY (CIDANews.com) – The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has issued the following alert – that a fraudulent email is circulating, referencing a CDC sponsored State Vaccination Program. (see picture below – it is a screen shot of the fraudulent email)

DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK

With the world in a panic over the H1N1 flu virus – it is easy to feed on the fears of people and try to get them to do something that they might not normally do. And as vigilant as people are these days with all the awareness about Facebook phishing scams, gift card phishing scams, Paypal and various other phishing scams, this one may just hit a nerve and you may be tempted to react before you think about it being a scam.

Fraudulent State Vaccination H1N1 Program

Fraudelent emails referencing CDC-sponsored State Vaccination Program

(posted December 1, 2009)

CDC has received reports of fraudulent emails (phishing) referencing a CDC sponsored State Vaccination Program.

The messages request that users must create a personal H1N1 (swine flu) Vaccination Profile on the cdc.gov website. The message then states that anyone that has reached the age of 18 has to have his/her personal Vaccination Profile on the cdc.gov site.

The CDC has NOT implemented a state vaccination program requiring registration on www.cdc.gov. Users that click on 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 follow unsolicited links and do not open or respond to unsolicited email messages.
• Use caution when visiting un-trusted websites.
• Use caution when entering personal information online.

The report was reprinted in its entirety. If you would like to read it go to – http://cdc.gov – there is a link on the right side of the page that has a current listing of top 10 articles or stories and “Phishing Scam” is number 1. http://cdc.gov/hoaxes_rumors.html

Don’t be taken in this Christmas Season – use caution when opening your mail and “never follow unsolicited links in email messages” no matter how credible the email looks. That is why phishing emails are also known as “copy-cat” emails. They try to emulate the web site to make you think that it is real.

When in doubt – open up a new browser window and type in the web site manually and then search for any reported fake emails.

Related Articles:

Greeting Card Scams – About.com Antivirus Software
FBI warns public of e-mail scams – Federal Bureau of Investigation

Tags: cdc, center for disease control, email scams, facebook phishing scam, h1n1 flu virus, malicious emails, paypal phishing scam, phishing scams, state vaccination h1n1 program, swine flu vaccination profile, who, world health organization