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Beware These Fake Malware-Carrying Groupon Emails

For those who subscribe to Groupon or another daily deal service, opening their emails is a daily occurrence – something that you do so often that you may mindlessly plunge into a half dozen dai...
Beware These Fake Malware-Carrying Groupon Emails
Written by Josh Wolford
  • For those who subscribe to Groupon or another daily deal service, opening their emails is a daily occurrence – something that you do so often that you may mindlessly plunge into a half dozen daily deals emails in a pre-coffee morning stupor and not even realize it until later.

    That’s what makes a new malware attack so much more dangerous – it disguises itself as something many people are used to seeing every single day.

    This threat comes in the form of a fake email from Groupon, which contains the subject line “Groupon dicount gifts.” If the poor spelling doesn’t automatically tip you off to some shady activities, the fact that the email wants you to download an attachment should.

    Here’s what the body of the email will read:

    Hi there! You’re going to love it
    We are glad to inform you that one of your friends has found a great deal on Groupon.com! And even shared it with you!

    Yeah! Now Groupon.com gives an opportunity to share a discount gift with a friend!
    Enjoy your discount gift in the attachement and share it with one of your friend as well.

    All the details in the file attached. be in a hurry this weekend special is due in 2 days!

    As you can see, it mimics the form of a real Groupon email fairly well:

    Fake message:

    Real email from Groupon:

    Sophos’ Naked Security blog says that the attachment contains a Trojan designed to infect Windows systems.

    Be on your toes, daily deal lovers.

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