CDC Issues H1N1 Phishing Alert and Warning to Potential Victims

I don’t know what’s to blame… the economic conditions, growth of the Internet, or just timing. But the number of scams and phishing alerts crossing my desk these days seem to be multiplying.  Below is a new phishing alert regarding the H1N1 vaccine.  Please be particularly careful over the next few months about clicking on any unsolicited emails.  Stay as safe online as we hope you do in person!

CDC has received reports of fraudulent emails (phishing) referencing a CDC sponsored State Vaccination Program.

The messages request that users must create a personal H1N1 (swine flu) Vaccination Profile on the cdc.gov website. The message then states that anyone that has reached the age of 18 has to have his/her personal Vaccination Profile on the cdc.gov site.

The CDC has NOT implemented a state vaccination program requiring registration on www.cdc.gov.

Users that click on the email are at risk of having malicious code installed on their system.

CDC reminds users to take the following steps to reduce the risk of being a victim of a phishing attack:

• Do not follow unsolicited links and do not open or respond to unsolicited email messages.
• Use caution when visiting un-trusted websites.
• Use caution when entering personal information online.

An example of the Phishing email follows: