Author Archives: Jovi Umawing
“Gerolamo Pizzeria” Spam Invades Inboxes
Researchers in the AV Labs received a spam that is unlike the usual batch of Viagra spam and Rolex spam that we would normally see in our inboxes: pizza spam. And the spammers behind it are back to offer second serving. …
Sex Appeal Meter Scam and Execution Hoax Abound on Facebook
There’s not a day when we don’t see a new scam or hoax—yes, even the old ones—being proliferated on Facebook. I’ve seen both today. Let’s take a quick look at each one, shall we? First off, the scam: click to …
Criminals Behind Rogue AV Leverage on Google
Certain compromised pages, which are search engine optimized, are found in the wild and accessible via popular search engines like Google and Bing. There pages were found to direct the user to a site where a faux scan is performed on the …
Online Criminals Bank on Skype Vouchers to Spread Exploit
Senior Malware Analyst James Dee found a fake domain that claimed it has anything to do with Skype vouchers. This voucher, which is a form of Skype Credit, has been around for quite some time so it already has an …
VIPRE® Report for February 2012: Rogue AV Remains a Popular Threat Tactic
These past few months, the news has been all about who got hacked, what softwares’ vulnerable and should be patched, and what the latest Web threat is like, which ranges from simple spam to those deemed as advanced persistent threats …
Spam Called “Google Pharmacy” is In the Wild
When Aaron Brown (Senior Product Manager) and Bill Weihl (Green Energy Czar) announced that Google will be retiring its “personal health record service” Google Health, who would have thought that the company will find itself “involved” once again with rogue pharmaceutical companies after unknowingly …
US Securities and Exchange Commission Spam Leads to Exploit and Stealer
When one of our colleagues in Malta received an email in his GMail inbox that purports to originate from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), he didn’t think twice about sending it over to the AV Labs for analysis. …
Official Stephenie Meyer Site was Serving Malware
Twilight fans who normally frequent the official website of Stephenie Meyer, infamous writer of the said book and saga, may have found their systems captured by a “being” that is neither a blood-sucker or a giant, feral dog. It might …
Here’s a Privacy Tool That Prevents You From Being Tracked
—and they aptly named it Do Not Track Plus (DNT+). In this day and age when almost every site on the Internet is interested in “getting to know more about you”, I reckon our privacy-conscious readers might take delight on …
VIPRE Report for January 2012 Released
Social engineering ploys doesn’t grow old—probably never will considering how effective they are no matter how simple. More often than not, online criminals doesn’t have to change their tactics to get unwary Internet users to do what they want them …










