The FBI this week said that people should “exercise caution” if they receive an e-mail that claims to show video footage or photos of Osama bin Laden’s death.
The federal law enforcement agency said that such videos or photos could contain a virus or malware that might infect one’s computer.
If the computer gets infected, the malware could access a person’s email contacts and send out the same virus to friends and family, the FBI said. Also, such “viruses are often programmed to steal your personally identifiable information,” it said.
"Read emails you receive carefully. Fraudulent messages often feature misspellings, poor grammar, and non-standard English," the statement added.
As a result, the agency said computer users should not open unsolicited or spam emails, and should not click on links claiming bin Laden photos.
Security firm Symantec said in its official blog that the “first spam using the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death was seen in the wild within three hours of the event.”
The company posted a fake phishing site that falsely used the CNN brand. The site also claimed to show photos of Osama bin Laden’s death.
Some of the false links from emails or phishing sites include an executable file that is likely a virus. “Spammers are making an effort to not only push the messages into users’ inboxes, but also getting them to open and install the executable payload,” Symantec said.
The White House on Wednesday said it possesses bin Laden’s death photos, but will not reveal them to the world to avoid a public backlash.
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