Good News: World War III Has Not Begun. It's Just Spam, Again

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Yes, it's true the saber-rattling out of Iran became a bit more chilling this week with reports of long range missile tests that would put Israel and pretty much the rest of the middle east, including Pakistan and Turkey, all within reach.

The bottom feeders of the Internet (spammers!) have perfectly timed a new round of malware ladden e-mails with subject lines like "Third World War Has Begun" and "20,000 U.S. Soldiers Cross Iran's Borders". Apparantly, these e-mails include embedded video clips promising recent footage of U.S. soldiers on the march. The footage is bogus, of course; but worst of all it contains a trojan virus sure to declare WWIII on your hard drive.

Don't be fooled.

I rank spammers somewhere between drug dealers and Washington lobbyists. But, this is low even for them. It makes me nostalgic for that guy from Nigeria in desperate need of help if you'll just float him a loan that he can pay back ten fold later.

Renee Oricchio

Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987. @oricchio