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| Swine Flu epidemic plays out in cyberspace |
| Leslie D'Monte / New Delhi May 03, 2009, 00:08 IST |
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Scammers - netizens who spam with the intention of cheating — are cashing-in on the H1N1 influenza (swine flu) scare. With email messages that include subject lines like ‘Salma Hayek caught swine flu!’, “Madonna caught swine flu!”, ‘US Swine Flu Statistics’, and “Swine flu in Hollywood”, they are (mis)leading gullible users to online pharmacies.
Online security company McAfee Avert Labs has noted that such emails now account for 2 per cent of all spam messages. Some e-mails contain malware too. One such email which references a vaccine for swine flu reportedly includes a link to a malicious file on a Mexican website that is designed to steal bank login information, according to security firm SonicWall.
Simultaneously, F-Secure Corp, another online security company, said that over 250 websites with the term “swine flu” were registered within the first few days following the announcement of the outbreak. Sites like these which include noswineflu.com, surviveswineflu.com and pigflufighter.com claim to have cures for the influenza. Noswineflu, for instance, claims to have a concoction of special Chinese and a Western herb which can “crush almost any flu symptom, sometimes overnight.” Pigflufighter, on its part, lists all swine flu infections by country and cajoles visitors to buy eight boxes of 'pig flu' masks (160 pieces for $190 plus free shipping).
Even the US Food and Drug Administration has alerted the public to be wary of internet sites selling products that claim to prevent, treat or cure the H1N1 flu virus, and has informed offending websites that they must take prompt action to correct and/or remove promotions of these fraudulent products or face immediate enforcement action.
The Better Business Bureau too has warned consumers to be on the lookout for fraudulent emails and websites trying to take advantage of the current flu outbreak. The operators of these websites, according to USFDA, take advantage of the public’s concerns about H1N1 influenza and their desire to protect themselves and their families.
However, the internet is also helping hundreds of thousands of users in getting relevant information on the flu. Wikipedia’s page on the flu, according to Nielsen Online, was updated literally hundreds of times this week (119 times as of early on May 1). There were around 100 Facebook groups dedicated to the flu till early May 1, and more than 500 other groups (the three largest groups have a combined total of over 10,000 members), according to Nielsen. And despite the flutter it caused with its earlier tweets last week, Twitter too churned out flu tweets at a rate of more than 10,000 per hour earlier in the week.
Even the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) is leveraging several different online channels to provide a “voice of reason in the fury of discussion around the flu — and in the process is setting a roadmap for those wondering how social media can be used for crisis communication”, according to Nielsen. CDC has a few Twitter accounts and over 65,000 followers (users who follow the tweets) — up 86 per cent since Nielsen began tracking it. It also has set up a dedicated page about flu on its site, which according to Nielsen estimates, has seen a nearly 100 per cent increase in unique visitors.
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