Advisory: Spam attacks from faked Opera e-mail signatures

Opera Software has recently detected several spam attacks using faked e-mail signatures that appear to come from our company and our products. These e-mails attempt to use our name to gain the trust of recipients and then entice them to click links that install viruses on their computer.

The easiest way to identify such messages is unsolicited mail from unknown senders containing subject lines about current news subjects, major accidents or celebrities. They also contain a signature line referencing Opera’s e-mail client. Please do not click any links and delete the message from your computer immediately.

We also recommend all users of the Opera mail client to update, change or remove the default signature. That can be done in several short steps:
Visit Tools: Mail and Chat Accounts
Select your e-mail account
Click “edit”
Change the signature under the Outgoing tab

Opera users are protected from visiting virus distribution pages through our partnership with Haute Secure. Haute Secure also offers malware protection plug-ins for both Internet Explorer and Firefox that can be downloaded from http://www.hautesecure.com/.

Though we do maintain a product notification e-mail list at Opera, recipients must opt-in and our policy forbids any reselling of this or any identifiable information to third parties of any kind. Our privacy policy is online at http://www.opera.com/privacy/.

These attacks trespass on our brand and undermine the trust we have worked hard to build with both Opera users and non-Opera users around the Web. We take this seriously, and hope this notice will help raise greater awareness of and vigilance against these attacks.

About Opera Software ASA

Opera Software ASA has redefined Web browsing for PCs, mobile phones and other networked devices. Opera’s cross-platform Web browser technology is renowned for its performance, standards compliance and small size, while giving users a faster, safer and more dynamic online experience. Opera Software is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with offices around the world. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera at http://www.opera.com.