Scammers using gloomy economic news to lure victims

Not surprisingly, scammers and spammers (or are they one in the same?) are jumping on the bleak economic news as a means delivering their wares.

ScanSafe is reporting a number of hackers using the Bank of America brand in a phishing attack that uses the bad economy as a lure. The messages contain a link for more information, but really download malicious code to the targeted user's machine. Always be wary of e-mail from a bank. Best to go to the bank's main URL and access your account data from there.

Barracuda Networks saw a big uptick in pump-and-dump stock spam messages that claim entertainment companies are benefiting from the falling economy. The messages claim the companies being touted are "recession proof." Obviously, if you're getting stock tips from unsolicited e-mails, you've got issues. On the bright side, there doesn't seem to be any malware associated with the Spam.

Hopefully, we'll soon have news of spammers using the booming economy as a lure. That would be a nice change of pace.