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Spammers Announce World War III

Posted by timothy on from the now-that's-not-cricket dept.

schliz writes with the stub of a disheartening article at IT News: "Hackers are deluging web users with malware-laden spam claiming that World War III has started following a US invasion of Iran. Security experts warned [yesterday] that spam emails with subject lines including 'Third World War has begun,' '20000 US Soldiers in Iran,' and 'US Army crossed Iran's borders' have been intercepted. The emails contain links to a malicious webpage that displays what appears to be a video player showing the mushroom cloud of a nuclear explosion."

3 of 334 comments (clear)

  1. Repercussions by TheMeuge · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I wonder what the possible effects of a coordinated disinformation attack of such nature would be, if it managed to deliver said news to a large segment of the world's population (that have access to email). If such an act was coupled with a successful hacking operation on even one of the major news network's websites, serious consequences may erupt.

  2. Re:Breaking news! by Wrath0fb0b · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This isn't new or interesting -- it's a classic pump and dump, most likely on the price of oil.

    (1) Buy oil futures
    (2) Pump spam/disinformation about a US military strike in Iran.
    (2a) Do this when US/Israeli officials are making strong statements
    (2b) because Iran has just tested some missiles
    (3) Watch the price of oil go up 4-5% in a day http://www.bloomberg.com/energy/
    (4) (Sell your oil futures at a) Profit!

    Yawn . . .

  3. Re:Impossible, or highly unlikely for quite some t by maypull · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There is no question WW/III would have happened if the United States hadn't taken over nearly all the military operations in Europe.

    "No question"? Really? [citation needed].

    Perhaps you're thinking about the Morgenthau Plan, which was a primarily economic effort (which only lasted a few years) to "industrially disarm" Germany.

    To the best of my knowledge, the primary reason for the stationing of US troops in Europe was to expand the US sphere of influence here (yes, I'm European) as a bulwark against the Soviets -- with whom relations were already beginning to deteriorate at the close of the war.

    And no, I can't be bothered to dig up references for that, which I suppose makes me a hypocrite but hey, technically I should be working! :)