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"Wanted" Star Angelina Jolie Used in Spam Campaign

It is nothing more than another spammer trick

Jul 18, 2008 10:02 GMT  ·  By
Spam campaign claims to show Angelina Jolie adult footage
   Spam campaign claims to show Angelina Jolie adult footage

At the end of June, on the 27th to be more precise, the movie Wanted was launched all over the world, bringing Angelina Jolie back into the public eye. BitDefender, company that specializes in providing security software solutions, has found out that spam messages have surfaced claiming to show adult footage of Angelina Jolie. The simple truth of the matter is that Angelina's good looks are used by these spammers to propagate malware which has been identified by BitDefender as Trojan.Agent.AGGZ.

Vlad Valceanu, Head of Antispam Research with BitDefender, comments: "The spam wave is part of a larger category of unsolicited mail messages that rely on social engineering techniques in order to lure unwary users into installing Trojans. This type of attack seems to be extremely successful, as the number of messages has quickly escalated over the last couple months. In order to achieve their goals, spammers usually rely on international celebrities and their pictures, along with catchy, yet fake news leads."

In the spam message one can see an explicit image of the movie star and some text content that says the e-mail hit your inbox because it is part of an MSN Featured Offers program. But in order to watch the movie, you must first download video-nude-anjelina.avi.exe onto your computer, which is a dead giveaway. It seems that by mentioning MSN, the spammers have achieved two goals: first of all to fool filters into thinking it is a legitimate message, and secondly so that the recipients would think the spam originates from a trusted site.

This is not the first time spammers take advantage of the starlet's fame. The latest Angelina related spam campaign started after she delivered her two children. Sending spam in regard to recent current events is one of the oldest tricks in the books. Angelina Jolie is the perfect target since she has sex appeal, has a huge fan base, and has recently released a new movie.

And in related news, the movie "Wanted" will be turned into a video game by the Universal Pictures Digital Platforms Group.