FBI warns that fake bin Laden video is a virus

04.05.2011
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation that messages claiming to include photos and videos of Osama bin Laden's death actually contain a virus that could steal personal information.

The warning comes as security companies said that they've spotted the disguised as photos of the dead Al Qaeda leader.

Security vendor F-Secure said Tuesday that criminals are e-mailing a password-stealing Trojan horse program called Banload to victims, and with links to fake "Osama dead" news articles that launch Web-based attacks on visitors.

U.S. authorities do have photos of bin Laden, who was shot in the head during an early morning raid Monday in Pakistan. But these photos have not been released publicly.

Scammers have also used a technique called search engine poisoning to try to trick search engines into listing hacked Web pages that are loaded with malware in their search results. "It's unlikely you'll find pictures or videos of Bin Laden's death online -- but searching for one will certainly take you to sites with malware,"

The FBI warned Internet users to watch out for fake messages on social network sites and to never download software in order to view a video. "Read e-mails you receive carefully. Fraudulent messages often feature misspellings, poor grammar, and non-standard English," the FBI warning stated.