Gullible iPhone 'winners' quickly become zombies

As Apple's new gadget sells out across the US, spammers are exploiting the situation by sending e-mails that try to dupe recipients into thinking they have won a brand new iPhone of their own.

Web filtering specialist Secure Computing is warning users not to fall for the socially engineered e-mails that contain a link which, if clicked on, will attempt to connect to a Web site and install malicious software designed to take control of the victims' computer.

Paul Henry, vice president of technology evangelism for Secure Computing, believes that although this is the first iPhone related "phish", it certainly will not be the last: "Because of the popularity of the iPhone brand this is the first in what's bound to be a series of scams involving the iPhone".

The criminals behind this scam are using sophisticated techniques to thwart security firms. For example, the Web site is loaded with more than 10 different pieces of malicious code, each targeting a potential browser vulnerability. In addition, users that attempt to visit the site more than once are redirected to another, "safe" Web site.

"This threat is particularly insidious in that scripts within the HTML code returned to the user contain exploit code for multiple vulnerabilities to improve the malicious hacker's chances of gaining the necessary access to install the rootkit /spam bot malware," said Henry.