Searches for Patrick Swayze Info Could Lead to Malware

Another celebrity death.  Another recycled scareware tactic attempting to lure users to download malware by telling them that their PC is infected with a virus.  We saw it after the deaths of Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Natasha Richardson earlier this year.  Now the attention of cyber criminals has turned to Monday’s death of Patrick Swayze as the soup du jour for malware distribution.
Queries for information on the death of the popular actor may lead to news stories that look legitimate when returned in search results, but when followed may lead users to a site that looks like this:

This similar tactic of presenting a window to the user that looks very much like a legitimate Windows popup has been used many times before in various forms.  The Windows Explorer-like screen presented to the user also uses geolocation in an attempt to identify the country and city that the user is coming from in to make the user believe that their data is actively under attack.  Popups with phrases like “Scan procedures finished.  34 Potential aggressive items was found!” and “Your computer remains infected by threats!  They might lead to data loss and file structure damage, and needed to be heal as soon as possible.  Return to Total Security and download it secure to your PC” also attempt to trick users into (continue reading...)