Spam Drags Olympic Gold Medalist Gabrielle Douglas’ Name in Dirt in Attempt to Spread Malware

Don’t let your heart sink when an email drops in your inbox claiming that there’s a huge scandal surrounding Olympic Gold Medalist, Gabrielle Douglas – it’s all just a ploy to infect your PC with malware.

Barracuda Labs recently intercepted the following spam message, which demonstrates that cybercriminals never miss a beat and are currently trying to capitalize on the buzz surrounding the gymnast’s gold medal performance last week:

Subject: Huge scandal with the USA Women’s Gymnastics Team on the 2012 London Olympics

Recent Olympic gold medal winner, USA Women’s Gymnastics winner Gabrielle Douglas, faces a lifetime ban after reportedly testing positive to banned diuretic furosemide. With details of the case still emerging, British Olympics Committee has ordered a suspension of the athlete until final results arrive.

View the video on youtube now

Upon following the link, users will not be directed to YouTube.com, but a compromised third-party website dressed up to look like the popular video-sharing website.

Screenshot Credit: Barracuda Labs

In order to watch the [non-existent] video, users will be prompted to download a fake Flash Player update (adobe-flashplayer-update.exe), which is actually malware in hiding. Barracuda Labs identified the malware associated with this spam attack as a member of the Trojan.Clicker family.

This attack is only one of many ways cybercriminals have been looking to cash in on the Olympic games. In addition to pumping out malware-laced spam emails, cybercrooks have also taken to registering garbage Olympic domain names in order to generate revenue via advertisements and TV-to-PC scams.

Don’t miss out on the latest tech news and computer security alerts! Follow us on Twitter at @hyphenet,  “Like” us on Facebook or add us to your circle on Google+.