Fraudulent emails are being sent regarding CDC-sponsored State Vaccination Program

Have you received one of these emails? The subject is State Vaccination Program, and the email address it comes from is ”Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)” <cdc-mess-id:(number)med(at)cdcdelivery(dot)gov.

The email asks you to create your personal profile at the cdc.gov website. The link that they send you to is not the CDC website however. The first part of the link is “online(dot)cdc(dot)gov(dot)yhnbak(dot)org(dot)im(slash)h1n1flu(slash)profile.php” which has nothing to do with the CDC website. The rest of the link captures your email address. The spammers that created this hoax are not only trying to capture real email addresses but also get more information on the people who do fill out their information.

They are currently playing on the nervousness of people regarding the H1N1 virus that is going around. Many people will fill out information that they think is from the CDC and would help them get a vaccination against it. Here’s the CDC’s own information about this rumor – http://www.cdc.gov/hoaxes_rumors.html

The moral of the story is don’t click on links in emails. If you do see an email with interesting information, even if it looks real, go directly to the website and search for the relavent information. For instance, after receiving this email, if you go to CDC.gov and search for “State vaccination program”, the third item on the list is health related hoaxes and rumors. That link will take you to the post about the fact that this is an email hoax.