IT security and control firm Sophos is warning of an ongoing spam campaign which promises not only a trailer featuring, but also free tickets to see, the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End’ movie.

The warning signs are all there, the familiar skull-and-crossbones logo of the popular film franchise and the word ‘pirate’ should be enough to make you think twice. But apparently not, as users in Europe and North America have been taken in by the pirate ship full.

Rather than a trailer for the blockbuster movie starring Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom, the email has a copy of the Troj/Yar-A Trojan horse attached. If pirate fans run the attached file they are shown a fake error message, and the Trojan horse downloads malicious code from the Internet while disabling anti-virus software.

"There is no film preview and there are no free tickets" Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, told DaniWeb. "The only thing that this email is trailing is an attack wave of malicious code against your PC. Once your computer is compromised, hackers will be able to steal information from you with the aim of identity theft and other crimes. Computer users who don't take care about what they run on their PC, and believe every email they are sent, could be heading for stormy water. If you want to see the latest Hollywood blockbuster book your ticket at the local cinema rather than clicking on a file sent to you out of the blue."

Captain Jack Sparrow could not have said it better…