Identity Thieves Woo Spanish Speakers with Love Songs

Spanish speakers are lured to buy international romantic songs but instead they have their identities stolen. Bitdefender spotted a spam campaign exploring users’ melancholy and depression, the two least welcome holiday guests.

Here’s a reason to be jolly: relationships are the most common trigger for Christmas depression, according to a study reported in 2007 by the Mayo Clinic. Also, two-thirds of women report depression during the holidays, as a survey by the National Women’s Health Resource Center shows.

Scammers have a strong academic background in exploiting human weakness, so they prepared a holiday surprise for Spanish speakers out there.

The spam poses as a commercial e-mail for LOS MEJORES LENTOS INTERNACIONALES DE LA HISTORIA + UN BONUS UNICO!!! As users find out after clicking the malicious website that promises they will fall in love again, the bonus is actually an identity theft. Ay, caramba – a unique bonus indeed!

Shania Twain’s “YouÂ´re Still the One,” Madonna’s “Take A Bow”Â and Elton John’s “Sacrifice”Â are just a few of the romantic songs advertised on the harmful website. Though the scam is in Spanish, the pop-ups appearing when clicking the malicious website register users’ IP and may come in languages including English, French, Portuguese, and Norwegian.

Users are asked for their personal data in an award scam that pops up to announce they have won no more and no less than “US $2,087,56 en efectiveÂ plus $10 cash.

To claim as many victims as possible, people are also lured to give away personal details such as name, address, phone number and e-mail through an automatic message they’re supposed to send to receive the promised love songs.

Besides the $190 they get for the DVDs, scammers are making money out of annoying toolbars that pop-up when clicking the malicious website.

This type of scam spreads rapidly before holidays, when online shopping increases. Users should avoid opening dangerous e-mails and clicking on dubious links or attachments. Installing and updating an antivirus solution protects users from the latest e-threats and scams, blocking spam and malicious websites from the very beginning.

All product and company names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and are the property of, and may be trademarks of, their respective owners.

This article is based on the samples provided by Alexandru Balan, Bitdefender Chief Security Researcher.