Super Mario worm circulates

A new worm is really plumbing the depths - by exploiting interest in a well-known computer game character.

An email currently circulating has an attachment claiming to be a game featuring Nintendo legend Mario, but it actually contains the Romario-A worm.

Once it has infected your PC, the worm then attempts to mail itself to contacts in the recipient's address book as well as spreading on USB drives and other removeable media.

"Fraudsters are constantly innovating to find new ways of tapping into users' psyches to tempt them into clicking on infected links and attachments," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

However, even after clicking on the attachment you may not be aware that anything is wrong as it will take you through to the promised game.

"This kind of attack is particularly stealth-like because nostalgic gamers can actually play the game once they click, giving them no reason to suspect that something more sinister is lurking beneath," said Cluley.