Munich  - Criminals wasted no time in integrating Barack Obama's inauguration into the latest wave of spam mail seeking to lure hapless surfers.

The latest scam e-mail messages claim ostensibly to bear news of Obama's surprise resignation. But the messages are, in fact, intended solely to lure users to websites infected with malware, warns antivirus laboratory Sophos. Under no circumstances should you click on any link in such a message.

The links redirect you to a site that looks deceptively similar to the official Obama website. It also sneaks a Trojan horse (Mal/WaledJs-A) onto your computer. The malware then downloads additional executable files onto the infested computer.

This not the first time that cybercriminals have tried to take advantage of Obama's popularity, Sophos reports. In November 2008, shortly after the presidential election, a Trojan-laced video (Mal/Behav-027) was sent into circulation as well. (dpa)