Cybercriminals are leveraging rumors of a break-up to spread malware

Jan 28, 2014 14:02 GMT  ·  By

Emails that advertise a private video of Brazilian football player Neymar da Silva Santos and his girlfriend, Bruna Marquezine, are being used by cybercriminals to distribute a piece of malware.

According to experts from Panda Labs, the malicious emails carry the subject line “Mostra tudo Video intimo de Neymar e Bruna Marquezine!!” (private video of Neymar and Bruna Marquezine showing all!!).

The link from the messages doesn’t point to a video, but to a site that serves a file named Video_Intimo.zip. The archive contains a control panel file.

When this file is opened, the victim is presented with a message that says the site is under maintenance and the video cannot be viewed. In the background, a piece of malware that’s designed to steal banking information from users in Brazil is being installed.

This campaign could be highly successful, especially since rumors about Neymar and Bruna breaking up have been making the rounds over the past days.

Cybercriminals will often leverage hot stories in order to trick unsuspecting Internet users, which is why you should always be careful before clicking on links or opening attachments.