Computer security firms are warning users to be vigilant about spam messages capitalizing the sudden death of U.S. pop star Michael Jackson.
The 50-year-old "King of Pop" was pronounced dead on Thursday afternoon at the Medical Center of the University of California in Los Angeles, after he was in a full cardiac arrest.
Security firm Sophos on Friday reported that about eight hours after Jackson's death, its experts witnessed the first wave of spam messages taking advantage of the breaking news in the subject line and body of the email.
In these messages, the spammers claimed that they have vital information about the death of Michael Jackson to share and asked for a reply.
Experts said the spammers can easily harvest recipients' contact information via a free live email address if users reply to the spam message.
"The untimely death of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, has sent shockwaves through the entire world -- but unfortunately, this type of huge news story is also the perfect vehicle for spammers to snare vulnerable computer users," Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos, said in a statement.
"These spammers are relying on curious users to reply to their bogus claims, but if you receive one of these messages you just need to delete it," he added.
In addition, security experts at Sophos discovered that cyber criminals were taking advantage of the passing of U.S. actress Farrah Fawcett, a 1970s TV icon who also died on Thursday, to spread fake anti-virus software.
Bad news offers opportunity to spread malicious software, noted Guilherme Venere, an expert at security firm McAfee.
"Every time a disaster happens or news about some celebrity reaches the media, malware writers try to take advantage of it. The most common attack vector is email," he wrote in a posting on the company's blog.
Venere said users should be wary of spam emails offering links to "news" or "pictures" of deceased celebrities, which most of the time will lead to websites touting pharmacy products and even result in the installment of malware on the computers
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