Don't Fall For Swine Flu Phishing Scam

At first glance, it seems pretty reasonable. An e-mail from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, center of all things flu, asks you to submit information on whether you've received the new H1N1 flu vaccine.

Enlarge CDC

Delete this email as fast as you can.

CDC

Delete this email as fast as you can.

If you've reached the age of 18 you have to register, the e-mail says. You can do that by clicking on a link that promises to "Create Personal Profile."

Don't do it! The e-mail isn't from the CDC at all. It's a phishing scam from nefarious folks who want your computer to do their evil bidding.

The nerdy folks at Ars Technica explain that the bogus CDC emails are spreading a computer-style virus called ZBot (aka Zeus). The ZBot turns your computer into a spam factory and also collects personal data that it forwards back to the bad guys.

While we haven't gotten one of the icky e-mails just yet, they were flying all over the Internet at a pretty good clip this week. In a blog post the other day, e-mail security outfit AppRiver wrote that it had seen the fake CDC e-mails going out at a rate of more than 1 million copies an hour.

The CDC has reported the scam to the proper authorities. There's an ongoing investigation by a bunch of them, including the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission and the FBI.