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Northwest Airlines scam switches to United Airlines

Cyber crooks behind recent phishing scams exploiting Northwest Airlines have switched to using United Airlines after internet security experts blew the whistle on their ticketing scam, it has emerged.

Internet users are now being warned to take note of this simple switch by the scammers who are out to expose end users to online threats that include Trojans and malware.

The email scam comes with a message warning potential victims that they are about to be debited for an airline ticket, which is socially engineered to elicit panic.

"As before, opening the ZIP file is a very bad idea," warns online security expert Graham Cluley of Sophos, who says this leads to a trojan horse designed to infect your computer being downloaded.

"Although it's understandable that you might panic into thinking that your credit card has been debited without your permission, you should be cynical enough to smell this for what it is - a dirty rotten scam designed to infect your personal computer," he added.

Internet users are advised to desist from responding to unsolicited emails to prevent falling victim to such scams.

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