Cybercriminals and online mischief makers have been quick to exploit internet users searching for more on the Patrick Swayze’s death.  

Malicious websites have been set up and pushed towards the top of the major search engines through what’s known as ‘black hat’ (in plain English, bad form) search engine optimising techniques.  

These sites in turn point to others which force fake anti-virus scanners that warn of non-existent security problems in a bid to trick the unsuspecting into buying software of dubious utility.

Serena Williams’ tennis US Open outburst video and the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks have also been exploited as themes for scareware traps over recent days.   Keith Floyd (RIP) probably won’t be far behind.

The mechanism of such attacks is achieving greater sophistication with time.   In some cases, sites listed in Google’s index for a search term of interest are hacked by cybercriminals who plant malicious scripts to redirect innocent users onto their scareware payload sites.

In a savage twist, the scripts on compromised sites are designed to prevent forwarding unwitting surfers to scareware download site unless Google is the referrer, helping the scams stay undetected for longer.