Fake MSNBC news used in the latest spam and malware combo campaign

Sophos reported a new widespread wave of dangerous spam messages that claim to be breaking news alerts from MSNBC. Samples intercepted at SophosLabs have revealed that rather than containing a link to the story on MSNBC, unsuspecting users that click on the URL in the email will be redirected to a malicious webpage which will then attempt to infect computers with a Trojan Horse.

According to Sophos, the emails contain a variety of subject lines including:

msnbc.com – BREAKING NEWS: Mary-Kate Olsen responsible for Heath Ledger’s death
msnbc.com – BREAKING NEWS: Google launches free music downloads in China
msnbc.com – BREAKING NEWS: McDonald’s found to breach FDA regulations, suspended from trading

The messages are the latest from the spam gang that recently distributed emails claiming to be from CNN’s breaking news alert service.