Topic: Beware fake YouTube video scam

[Clive]

Cybercriminals have turned to video-sharing website YouTube in their attempt to infect PCs with a Trojan horse.

Hoax emails claim to point to a YouTube video but actually direct people to a webpage containing a malicious script and a new variation of the Storm worm.

The worm is designed to compromise a PC and turn it into a zombie to spam out junk email or launch distributed denial of service attacks against other computer users.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, said: "Clicking on the links in the email doesn't take you to YouTube's real website, but the IP address of a compromised PC."

"If infected, victims' computers can be used by hackers to steal personal information, spam out malware and junk email, or launch distributed denial of service attacks against innocent parties."

Subject lines for the fake online movie include: "Dude your gonna get caught; LOL, Dude what are you doing; Dude, what if your wife finds this?; Dude dont send that stuff to my home email and LOL, that is too cool".

Cybercriminals can become millionaires by shelling out just £600 on the tools needed to spread malware across the web, a new report claims. According to data from PandaLabs, there is a black market online where malicious code and tools are available at knock-down prices.