PHISHING SCAM: CDC Sponsored State Vaccination Program for H1N1
‘Personal H1N1 Vaccination Profile’ scam
by U.S. Centers for Disease Control
December 8, 2009
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has received reports of fraudulent emails (phishing) referencing a CDC sponsored State Vaccination Program for H1N1. The messages request that users create a personal H1N1 (swine flu) Vaccination Profile on the CDC.gov web site.
An example of the phishing email is below:
_________________________________________
Subject: State Vaccination Program
You have received this e-mail because of the launching of State Vaccination H1N1 Program.
You need to create your personal H1N1 (swine flu) Vaccination Profile on the cdc.gov website. The Vaccination is not obligatory, but every person that has reached the age of 18 has to have his personal Vaccination Profile on the cdc.gov site. This profile has to be created both for the vaccinated people and the not-vaccinated ones. This profile is used for the registering system of vaccinated and not-vaccinated people. Create your Personal H1N1Vaccination Profile using the link: [Create personal Profile]
_________________________________________
Users that click on the embedded link in 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 open or respond to unsolicited email messages.
• Do not click links embedded in emails from unknown senders.
• Use caution when entering personal information online.
• Update anti-virus, spyware, firewall, and anti-spam software regularly.
For more info see the CDC hoax page: http://www.cdc.gov/hoaxes_rumors.html
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