A new very dangerous virus infection attempt is spreading on Steemit .Be very careful with any suspicious offer. This could lead to your computer infected.
Scam Description
The attacker publish the following comment on user’s post
NOTE: the author or the content of the comment may be different from the above screenshot
If you click on the link, you will be anonymously redirected to the domain contained as a parameter in the anonymizer URL and land on a website similar to this one:
Note that the website name can be different than the one displayed on the above screenshot
If you look at any of random link generated on the website, you will see that it contains something like
http://www.searchingmagnified.com/….
What is searchingmagnified.com
Searchingmagnified.com is a nasty and harmful computer infection deemed as browser hijacker!
It is a fake search provider created and distributed by cyber crooks to gain illegal profit. It is able to infect any computer system running on Windows OS. searchingmagnified.com virus is a browser based virus and it can work with all famous browsers. It can hijack Google Chrome, MS Edge, Mozilla Firefox, IE, Opera and many others very easily.
Once inside your PC, this deceptive threat will modify your system and browser settings. searchingmagnified.com virus will change the homepage and search engine of your infected browser with its own malicious domain. It looks like a genuine and normal search provider but it show lots of sponsored results, pop-ups, banners, deals and other advertisements. It can also redirect your browser on unknown and malicious web pages automatically.
searchingmagnified.com virus has the main motive to boost the traffic of its partner websites and generate revenue to earn commission. It can open various new tabs ads on your browser without your confirmation. You will get lots of annoying pop-ups and redirect tabs on your computer. searchingmagnified.com virus mostly intrude your computer through bundled free third party programs, spam emails, suspicious websites, shareware, porn or torrent sites and many other tricks. Once getting the control of your PC, it can also disable your anti-virus and firewall programs. It is hard to detect and remove this nasty infection using any regular anti-virus program. searchingmagnified.com virus can track your browsing history and collect your sensitive details including financial information. It can share your data with hackers and risk your privacy. It can also create loopholes on your system for other threats and intruders.
Preventive action activated
This phishing scam has been added to the black list of my Warning-Bot and it will issue warnings with a link to this post, notifying users of the malicious activity of those accounts.
If you find similar phishing attempts, contact me on steem.chat
To protect yourself, you can:
- always double check before clicking on a link, especially if this links take you away from steemit.com.
- verify the reputation of people writing comments on your posts. A user with a low reputation should trigger you attention.
Previous threat alerts
If you missed them, please find here the previous alerts I published:
- Scam alert and white hat counter-strike
- Phishing exploit has been stopped - Scammers thwarted!
- Potential scammer reported- @jones420
- Fake Steemit website try to steal your password!
- Phishing attack to steal your active key
- Potential scammer reported - @minnowpond
- Scammer reported - @russiann
- Scammer reported - @steemitrobot
- Scammer reported - @tripadvisor.com
- Scammer reported - @harquick
- Scammer reported - @gtg.witnesses
- Phishing site reported - sleemit(dot)com
- Phishing site reported - www.steemitfollowup(dot)ml
- Phishing site reported - www.steemitfollowup(dot)cf
- Phishing site reported - www.autosteemer(dot)com
- Phishing site reported - www.autosteemer(dot)club
- Phishing site reported - upperwhale
- Phishing site reported - steamit(dot)ga
- Phishing site reported - steenit(dot)cf
- Phishing site reported - steemautobot(dot)ml
- Phishing site reported - autosteem(dot)info
- Phishing site reported - steemij(dot)tk
- Phishing site reported - steemitservices(dot)ml
- Phishing site reported - uppervotes(dot)ml
- Phishing site reported - steemupgot(dot)ga
- Virus infection threat reported - searchingmagnified(dot)com
- Phishing site reported - steemrobot(dot)ga
- Phishing site reported - postupper(dot)ml
- Phishing site reported - steembot
- Phishing site reported - steemone
- Phishing reported - Scammers use account's profile
- Phishing site reported - steemitfoto
- Scammers must really hate me a lot to create a dedicated scam link
- Phishing site reported - pixz
- Anti-phishing war - The crooks continue their bashing campaign
- Phishing site reported - SteemitProtection
- Phishing site reported - myaprotection
- Phishing site reported - TPM Rotator
- Phishing site reported - SteemPix
- Phishing site reported - minnowboosternetwhitelistinvite
- Phishing site reported - steemituper
- Phishing site reported - steemiv
- Phishing site reported - Post copied without your permission
- Phishing site reported - Black Steem
- Phishing site reported - Steembottracker(dot)trade
- Scammer reported - @still-observer
- New scam for phishing website uses fake comments with images
- Phishing attempts use images as comments
- Virus infection threat reported - steemitgiveaway(dot).gq
reminder
A bit of paranoia is the basis of security.
There are a few simple rules to follow in order to avoid having your account hacked:
Rule 1: NEVER, I repeat, NEVER use or give your owner key or password!
Rule 2: Use your posting key to login, post and vote on trusted websites like steemit.com or busy.org.
Rule 3: NEVER give your active key as this key allows to control your funds! Only use your active key for special operation like money transfer or account update on trusted websites like steemit.com.
Rule 4: Anywhere else, if you are requested to provide any of the above key: RUN AWAY!!!
4 simple rules. It's not much to remember. Follow them scrupulously, and you will only have to laugh at unsuccessful attempts from scammers.
Spread the words, resteem this post to your friends, and you will make the platform safer.
Thanks for reading!
If you notice any new suspect activity like the one described above, drop a comment on this post or contact me on steem.chat
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