14 DAY TRIAL // Security researchers from Belgian email security provider MX Lab warn about a wave of fake LinkedIn emails using Mother's Day to lure users to spam.
Today is Mother's Day in the United States and a lot of people are trying to honor their mothers in the best way possible.
But as always, cyber criminals are just around the corner ready to profit from holidays such as this one.
The fake emails reported by MX Lab were created using a LinkedIn email template and purport to come from the social networking website.
They bear a subjects like "check it out" or "mothers day flowers" and purport to come from a "[User] via LinkedIn <email address>"
The contained message reads "Hey. This is the site I used to send the flower set to my mom last year. I've used them many times and never had a problem [url]"
The links took users to a spam site part of an affiliate marketing scheme that tried to convince them to sign up for different offers. Scammers earned commissions for each subscription.
It seems that at this time the website is down, however, there is no warranty that it will remain like that or that it won't be updated to link to some other page.
"The domain was registered yesterday at a low cost domain registrar and is now in use for spam campaigns. This domain is obviously registered in a bulk domain registrations with the intention to send spam from it for a while and then change domain again," the MX Lab experts explain.
Users are advised to exercise caution when dealing with links included in emails, even if the messages appear to originate from trusted sources or services. The LinkedIn brand has been abused many times before to make scam emails look more legitimate.