It’s an unfortunate reality, but as a widespread, somewhat mysterious illness that has more questions than answers, the swine flu is a ripe target for scam artists. So along with protecting yourself and your family from infection, you’ve also got to be on guard against unscrupulous and shady marketers. There are three main types of swine flu-related scams:

Swine spam Swine malware Swine “cures,” “remedies,” and “vaccines”

Swine spam are e-mail messages that have the words “swine flu” in the subject line. The senders are simply using swine flu as a hook to get you to open the e-mail. When you open a spam e-mail, the sender may be notified that yours is a valid address and that you are amenable to opening messages. At a minimum they can collect these “good” addresses and either use them in other marketing campaigns or sell them to other marketers. Once you’ve opened the e-mail, you may be offered a wide range of products or services, which may not even have anything to do with swine flu. The point is you’ve opened the message and whatever appears is being advertised directly and immediately to you. Most mass advertising is just that – massively distributed – and the marketer hasn’t much idea who or how many people see the ad. When you open the e-mail, there it is, and they are pretty much guaranteed you’ve been exposed to whatever they are selling.

everydayhealth.com