Windows 8 Launch brings in Phishing scams

Windows 8 Is not even a week old, but the scammers and phishing gangs already are taking their swings at it, launching new efforts established on the shiny new operating system. Security researchers have discovered a new scareware campaign playing off of the Windows 8 launch, as well as a phishing email trying the same tactics.

This time, the Windows 8 the launching has urged a new strain of scareware–surely not the last–that aims to be the “Win 8 Security System” and, of course, warns victims about a series of non-existent threats on their PCs.

The scareware presents users a warning, saying that their machines are infected and informing them that they should register their copy of the scareware in order to see what the threats are and remove them, according to an analysis from Trend Micro

sers often will come across these fake antivirus or scareware threats on either compromised legitimate Web sites or malicious sites. Scammers will try to compromise popular legitimate sites, such as news sites, social media sites and others and insert some malicious code onto the sites. When users visit a compromised site, they may see a pop-up window telling them that their machine is infected. Usually, clicking on any link in the pop-up will download the scareware, which could then require a payment of $50 or $100 in order to remove it.

Scammers rely on users searching for popular terms, such as Windows 8, in order to land on the malicious sites they control, so they tie their campaigns to trending terms. The researchers at Trend Micro also came across a phishing campaign that’s tied to Windows 8, trying to goad them into downloading a free copy of the new OS.

Rather than a free version of Windows 8, the victim gets a request for their personal data, including name, email and other details.