Hackers use fake YouTube pages to spread viruses

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The email you receive looks harmless, but once you click the link you are directed to a site containing YouTube videos. The site looks like YouTube, but it's not.

As soon as you visit the site, it tells you the videos are unplayable until you download the program. If you install the program, it installs a virus in your computer. Once you restart the program, it is smart enough to take you to the main YouTube site make it look like every thing is fine with your computer. The virus is hidden. Similar viruses can occur when a user installs fake programs for site like PayPal, eBay, Amazon, financial banks and others.

Jamz Yaneza, threat research manager for security software company Trend Micro Inc., told Physorg.com:

"It's spot-on accurate, and that is scary...If I were watching YouTube videos all day I would probably click on this one."

To avoid such complications, check the address bar and make sure it has an address like the following: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDJv-QKKBOY and not one with a long web address (URL) that doesn’t start with YouTube.com.

Use can also use browsers like Firefox, Opera, Safari and Chrome and they alert you when you visit malicious sites. Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) is improving, but Microsoft doesn't fix vulnerabilities in a timely fashion and most hackers target IE specifically because Microsoft controls the bulk of the browser market. Mozilla's Firefox shows the logos of big sites so you can tell whether it is a legitimate site or not, such as the example below:

Cgullworld.blogspot.com Firefox displays logos of site in address bar. image:43824:1::0

You will see the YouTube logo at the left side of the address bar, and the right side will show the YouTube.com at the start.

Next time, if you receive an email that says “check the cool video," make sure it is a real site.