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Thursday, 23 June 2011 17:34

$74 Million Scareware Ring Raided

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Authorities in several countries have reportedly busted up parts of a $74 million scareware ring after conducting a series of mulinational raids.

The raids, in Latvia, Britain, the United States and several other countries, focused on seizing servers and bank accounts that members of two gangs allegedly used to rake in about $74 million by tricking computer users into buying fake anti-virus programs and services, according to the BBC.

The investigation, dubbed Operation Trident Tribunal, involved about a million victims who were tricked into paying $129 for bogus security software after being told their computers were infected with viruses. The victims were lured to fake websites advertising a free virus scan. But when they visited the site, their computers were infected with scareware that popped up messages on their screen indicating their computer was infected. The only way to get rid of the infection, they were warned, was by buying and installing the security program the scammers were peddling. This scam took in about $72 million from victims.

A second gang lured victims through fake ads placed on legitimate websites. The gang members allegedly created a fake online advertising agency that fed malicious online ads to legitimate sites. For example, they reportedly submitted code for an ad for a hotel chain to a U.S. newspaper website. But once the ad was publishing, they tweaked the ad code so that it installed scareware on the machine of anyone who clicked on the ad. Victims lost about $2 million by participating in that scam.

News reports out of Europe indicate that only two people, who were allegedly involved in the fake ad scam, have been arrested so far.

$74 Million Scareware Ring RaidedKim Zetter is a senior reporter at Wired covering cybercrime, privacy, security and civil liberties.
Follow @KimZetter on Twitter.

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