Did you know that in Germany, you have to pay to watch television?
I’m not talking about cable subscription or even the staggering electric bill one has to pay for the hours spent staring at the TV screen. In Germany, you literally have to pay for the mere actof watching a little bit of telly.
Yep, as regulated by law, those living in Germany have to get a license for their television sets (and radio, too). This is because the costs of public radio and television broadcasting are paid with fees, which are collected by GEZ (Gebuhreneinzugszentrale). According to this article, the cost is EUR5.52 a month for a radio and EUR17.03 for a television, which includes the radio fee. And like I said, the fee does not include fees for cable television…
Sounds complicated? Well, adding to the complication is TROJ_AGENT.JAW— yet another one of those Rechnungmalware, which TrendLabs has discovered being spammed in an email message supposedly coming from GEZ. According to the message, the recipient has unpaid bills amounting to EUR445.99. The attached “PDF” file (which is a copy of the Trojan) supposedly has more details about the bill. Of course, when an unsuspecting user executes the attached Trojan, it proceeds to download a spyware detected as TSPY_BZUB.CJ.
An interesting social engineering, isn’t it? GEZ has been around long and yet this seems to be first time they got entangled with the malicious world of computer threats. What does a TV and radio permit have to do with malware anyway?
Pretty much, actually, because just this new year GEZ started requiring Internet-capable computers to be licensed, too. Thus, for computer users who have been using the Web to watch TV or listen to the radio, they may need to pay up.
And that’s what this Trojan is all about — preying on guilty Internet users.
Trend Micro detects this Trojan and its downloaded spyware with the latest pattern file. However, users are still advised not to open email attachments that come from untrusted or unexpected sources. Of course, honesty is still the best policy…