The messages are the latest in a series that use high-profile individuals or stories to entice readers to link onto infected sites. Previous subjects include actor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Osama Bin Laden.
On this occasion the messages play on reported marital difficulties between Beckham and his celebrity wife, the former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham. Typical entries, according to Sophos, read:
"David Beckham of Real Madrid was caught by photographers with his pants down. Early in the morning he was photographed with a Spanish hooker in a rather compromising position. Photos yet to hit the newspapers have been released here."
But instead of the expected pictures, Sophos warns that visitors to the linked site could find their computers infected by the Hackarmy Trojan, which secretly downloads itself onto the machine, and implants a remote access tool, or RAT.
These tools typically give their creators control over the infected machine, for such purposes as the theft of personal information or the distribution of spam.
"Hackers and virus writers will try all kinds of tricks to entice people into downloading their malicious code – now they are trying to suggest that England's football captain David Beckham has been playing away from home," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "The public's appetite for salacious gossip about the private life of the Beckhams might lead some into an unpleasant computer infection," he warned.