Global cybercrime ring - interesting article

[Paddy]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/techno...article1510762/

Fascinating look into the world of online crime - it's big business these days. It always amazes me how many people can be fooled by scareware - you'd think by now that people would be savvy enough to ignore the claims that their computers are "infected" but no...it's still a very effective way to get people to install all manner of malware. (on PCs, not Macs - most if not all of these efforts are aimed at PC users)

QUOTE

A scareware vendor distributed its goods one September weekend via The New York Times’ website by inserting a single rogue advertisement. The hacker paid NYTimes.com to run the ad, which was disguised as one for the Internet phone company Vonage. It contaminated PCs of an unknown number of readers, according to an account of the incident published in The New York Times.

Patrik Runald, a senior researcher at Internet security firm Websense Inc., expects rogueware vendors to get more aggressive with marketing. “We’re going to see them invest more money in that – buying legitimate ad space,” he said.

To draw victims to infected websites, hackers will also manipulate Google’s search engine to get their sites to come up on the top of anyone’s search in a particular subject. For instance, they might capitalize on news events of wide interest – from the winners of the Oscars to the Tiger Woods scandal – quickly setting up sites to attract relevant search times. Anti-virus maker Panda Security last year observed one scareware peddler set up some 1 million web pages that infected people searching for Ford auto parts with a program dubbed MSAntispyware2009. They also snare victims by sending their links through Facebook and Twitter.

[Xairbusdriver]

QUOTE

It always amazes me how many people can be fooled

I know what you mean. I've developed a sure cure for that kind of behavior, however. Just send me your email address written on the back (I will not accept writing on the front!) of a 50 dollar bill. I'll quickly send you the file and you can forever be immune to those SCAMs.

You're welcome and thank you!



My wife came across one that refused to close. No matter what one did, the window just refreshed, probably also downloading an .exe file or at least sending her IP address. I told her to just Quit Safari...she knew there was no anti-virus software she needed (I run ClamAV-X[?] occasionally), but the window simply refused to take "No" for an answer.