Pssst! Want to see Beckham in the nude?

If you are David Beckham, you could be accused of anything. Even for the virus that infects your computer.

Now, hackers have sent thousands of messages on chat rooms and news groups, claiming that users can see pictures of the England football captain in a 'compromising' position with a Spanish lady by clicking on a link.

When 'curious' users click on the link that they presume will show them the sleazy pictures, they will end up downloading the latest virus, or Trojan. Once the Trojan infects the computer then hackers can gain easy access the computer.

A Trojan is a malicious programme disguised as a normal application. Trojan horse programmes do not replicate themselves like a virus, but they can be propagated as attachments to a virus.

Only clicking on the link might not readily infect a user's PC, but downloading the fake image file from there will.

Govind Rammurthy, managing director, MicroWorld Software Services Pvt. Ltd, says, "Of late, virus authors and hackers are using all means to stay ahead. With the advances in anti-virus software and increased awareness of viruses, these people are constantly evolving new means to spread viruses."

He further added that the Trojan that is downloaded when the link to the images is clicked is called the 'Hackarmy' Trojan. "This Trojan is a backdoor IRC type and first appeared in January 2004. After infecting a computer, it then logs on to a predefined IRC server and waits for backdoor commands from the hacker," said Rammurthy.

He also said that in the past, Hackarmy authors have used similar tricks to lure curious users into downloading the Trojan. They tried the same trick by claiming that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Osama Bin Laden had been found dead.

MicroWorld offers free tools to remove the Trojan on its Web site www.msspl.co.in