A Web site designed to look like an official Yahoo service offering free games, but is most likely designed to facilitate ID theft, has been discovered by Internet security firm Trend Micro.
The fake site, which was still live on Wednesday afternoon, is being hosted on a Yahoo Geocities account and asks users to log in with their Yahoo user ID and password. Once the details are entered, the site displays a slogan "PAGINA HACKEADA - CUIDADO!", which means "hacked page -- be careful" in Spanish.
Adam Biviano, senior systems engineer at Trend Micro Australia and New Zealand, said victims are being lured to the Web site by spam sent over Yahoo's instant messenger service. This means a user will receive a message -- often from someone on their friends list -- telling them to visit the site, which makes the scam more believable.
"It is basically a honeypot to try and attract people there to sign up for online games. I am of the opinion that this is probably just [being promoted] with spam," said Biviano, who conceded that the messages could be generated by a virus or other malware. "viruses making use of instant messenger are becoming far more popular."
According to Biviano, the site only has one purpose -- identity theft.
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