Watch out for Santa Claus IM Worm

Here’s one we better pass around today:
Link: PCWorld.com - Here Comes Santa Claus Worm.

A new instant-messaging worm called IM.GiftCom.All is making the rounds this holiday season. Rated as a "medium" threat by IMlogic, the worm attempts to get users of the instant-messaging networks run by America Online, Yahoo, and Microsoft to visit a seemingly festive Web site featuring Santa Claus.

The message comes from someone already present on a user’s "buddy list," said Art Gilliland, vice president of products for IMlogic. It contains a supposed link to a URL (uniform resource locator) starting with "santaclause.aol.com/a?|"

However, clicking on that link takes users to a different Web site and triggers the download of a malicious file to a user’s PC, Gilliland said.