Phishing scam co-opts Adobe name

Web users are being warned that a number of spam emails are making the rounds, claiming to be official Adobe upgrades in an attempt to get Internet users to click on malicious links.

According to Internet security specialist Cloudmark, the phishing emails offer Web users a “free Adobe Acrobat Reader upgrade,” but the links contained within direct people to a malware distribution site instead.

“Our samples, as well as reports elsewhere, show this scam being sent by otherwise legitimate email service providers,” Cloudmark reports.

“Mailchimp has been victimized this way in the past, Exact Target was a source earlier this month, and the current batch of scam spam is coming from Silverpop,” the firm claimed.

Cloudmark claims that Adobe is aware of these campaigns and has been proactively warning recipients, urging them to delete any messages they are not 100% certain about.

Recently, a new type of phishing attack was launched that could bypass conventional browser security.

The scam targeted Paypal users by disguising the spam emails as official communications from the firm.