A Facebook page rejoicing over Osama bin-Laden’s death with around 3,50,000 fans, was quickly targeted by spammers.
Following his killing on Sunday night, these spammers had unleashed a wave of new spam emails, disrupted search results, and specially crafted websites to mislead people seeking news, Fox News reports.
According to reports, leading security firm Kaspersky Lab had begun detecting spam e-mail campaigns and Web pages built especially to game the major search engines within hours of the first reports that the terrorist leader was tracked down by U.S. forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Kaspersky analyst Fabio Assolini said few hours after US President Barack Obama announced the result of the combat operation, the company began finding Search Engine Optimised (SEO) Web pages offering news of bin Laden's death and claiming to offer his photographs.
Clicking those links directed Web surfers to malicious Web pages that try to install Best Antivirus 2011, a rogue anti malware program, Assolini said.
He also said another Kaspersky researcher uncovered a Facebook spam campaign offering 'free subway rides and plane tickets' to 'celebrate Osama's death', adding that users who visited the malicious page were asked to enter personal information to win a prize, but ended up spamming their own friends with the solicitation.
"Anytime there is a major event there are always spammers," he warned.