Will the worry of a $4,490.50 Plasma TV order make you follow the link to a bogus web page with a Trojan Horse prgram embedded in its code?...

This email (see image below) came directly to one of our own inboxes, and gives details of an apparent purchase of a Panasonic Plasma TV for the grand total of $4,490.50. Most recipients would be very worried to receive such an email and would undoubtedly follow the link provided to ensure their financial security.

There are two problems with this email scam ... the first comprises an attempt to include a file located on a remote server within the email itself, which is coded to over write your svchosts.exe file which would open the door to your system for the scammers.

The second, is that the link (disguised, and actually sends you to http://comsearchtechnologies.com/ which is a web page with a Trojan Horse program embedded in it in such a way as to download itself to your system. The trojan horse program is called Trojan.ByteVerify which is designed to exploit a vulnerability in Microsoft VM (Java Virtual Machine) which can allow a hacker to gain access to your system.

The vulnerability was first acknowledged and a fix issued by Microsoft in June 2003, so systems that have been updated will not be at risk. Please ensure that you run Wiondows Update on a daily basis and before surfing the web.

The Email ...

The bogus web page...