Cuba’s Castro: Critical Condition to Concocted Casualty

March 3rd, 2008 by Arman Capili (Technical Communications)

After almost 50 years of ruling the Communist state of Cuba, strongman Fidel Castro retired on February 24 and was succeeded by his younger brother Raul as president. This story was all over the news as an era finally came to a close and a succession of power looms over the small anti-Western island state.

However, if a particular email message recently circulating is to be believed, Fidel Castro has likewise passed to the afterlife.

Trend Micro was alerted of an email phishing attack purportedly from the Hispanic television network Univision. The email message claims to have video evidence of Castro lying in state, with his close ally and President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez mourning by his side.

Clicking the links on the email message downloads a malware on the unknowing user’s affected system. Trend Micro detects this as TROJ_AGENT.FRV.

It can be noted the details of the message are accurate and the scenarios very imaginable in the event of an actual demise of the former president. Even a closer inspection of the attached image would reveal a man that closely resembles Fidel Castro, seemingly inside a casket. Here is a sample of the said spammed email message:

Users are strongly advised to be wary of these types of email messages. Avoid clicking on URLs and delete such messages altogether. You may want to check the news first before falling for these types of social engineering tactics.

(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

 Loading ...