A namedropping MSN Trojan is doing the rounds through MSN Messenger.

The IRCBOT-RB Trojan poses as messages containing links to pictures on social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. Typical come-ons involve messages such as "Wanna see my pictures before i send em to facebook?". Clicking on a link takes users to booby-trapped websites.

Anti-virus firm Trend Micro advises users to avoid the temptation to follow any links or pictures sent via MSN Messenger (unless you are sure of the origin) and to be suspicious of messages which refer to the use of social networking sites.

In other malware/social engineering news, Trend Micro reports that it took less than a day for VXers to re-direct users who want to find out more about Brokeback Mountain actor Heath Ledger's untimely death to sides harbouring malware. The attack is similar to early attempts to populate Google search results with links to maliciously constructed sites. ®

Related stories

• Best Buy 'framed' by pesky Windows virus (25 January 2008)
• Bhutto murder used to spread malware (28 December 2007)
• Skype Trojan steals login credentials (17 October 2007)
• Skype worm leaps onto MSN (24 May 2007)
• Botnet creators AIM high (21 September 2006)
• Hackers control bot client over P2P (2 May 2006)
• AOL IM worm roots around Windows PCs (31 October 2005)
• Polyglot IM worm targets MSN (25 August 2005)
• MSN Messenger worm seeds zombie networks (4 February 2005)
• Messenger users get Henpecked (11 October 2002)
• Instant message, cracker tricks (20 March 2002)