'You visit illegal websites'

If you've received an email warning that 'You visit illegal websites,' you can take a deep breath and relax. Although the email with the subject line 'You visit illegal websites' claims to be from the FBI, 'You visit illegal websites' is nothing more than spam. The danger that comes along with this particular spam email is that if you fall for 'You visit illegal websites' and open the attachment, you will find your computer infected with malware.

What the 'You visit illegal websites' Email Looks Like?

The 'You visit illegal websites' email is one that will show up in your inbox unsolicited. The text of the email claims that the FBI has found that you have been visiting 'illegal websites,' without specifying what that means or what sites you are supposed to have visited. 'You visit illegal websites' says that the FBI needs you to answer some questions that are in an attached file called Document.zip, but if you open that file, it doesn't contain questions – it contains a rogue anti-virus program that will try to scam you out of money. In particular, the malware contained in the attachment is the 'multi-rogue' program known as Win32/FakeRean, which will try to scare you into paying for a license for its nonexistent security application.

Why you Don’t Need to Worry – and Why the only Danger is the File Attachment

Obviously the 'You visit illegal websites' message is spam, and 'You visit illegal websites' is being used as a new mode of distribution for the multi-rogue malware. The email is meant to scare people into opening its infected file attachment. If the 'You visit illegal websites' email still has you worried, it is important to understand that there are several reasons why 'You visit illegal websites' cannot be from the FBI. The FBI does not police the Internet in that way, and it doesn't (and can't) record everyone's Internet traffic or usage. Aside from the fact that the FBI doesn't track you online, it would be a violation of every American's constitutional rights for the FBI to watch and record personal Internet history in that way. No one can come after you for just visiting a website, and no one from the FBI would contact you via email if you were a criminal suspect. That's not to mention that the 'You visit illegal websites' email begins by addressing the recipient as 'Sir or Madam,' which makes no sense if you consider that for the FBI to have tracked you and emailed you, they would have to know who you were.

What it all comes down to is that the email that uses the subject 'You visit illegal websites' is relying on social engineering in order to get you to install malware. 'You visit illegal websites' is supposed to sound really scary, so that even if you doubt that 'You visit illegal websites' is from the FBI, you'll want to open the attachment just to be sure. Essentially, the people who are behind the Win32/FakeRean malware are trying to convince you into doing what they want you to do. You don't have to let that happen. Be skeptical of any email that claims to be from the government, or that claims to be delivering life-shattering or critically important and unsolicited news. Know your rights, and consider researching any email that is strange or suspicious before you open the attachment.