The past month has seen a fair share of news in regards to Cybercrime and today is no exception with the story that the FBI has taken down a crime ring worth 72 million dollars. Police in the United States were able to complete the operation along with seven other countries which include the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Latvia and Lithuania.
It is believed that the countries involved seized computers that were used to run a scareware scam which totaled over $72,000,000 according to Fox News. While the names of the individuals involved in the scheme have not been published, it is believed that the scareware was planted on over 960,000 computers across the globe. The aim of the scheme was to encourage users to disclose their personal information and credit card details by pretending to be an anti-virus program detecting several infections on the user's computer. As of this moment the Latvian authorities have taken control of five bank accounts that have allegedly received the ill-gotten funds. In connection with this, the United States authorities were part of another case that involved the arrest of two Latvians who are accused of placing a website advertisement on a Minnesota newspaper's website that led to the loss of $2 million. The two face several charges in the United States in relation to wire fraud and conspiracy.
As we've previously covered here on Neowin, there has been coverage recently of attacks on various websites and organisations which were primarily caused by the numerous requests sent from botnets. In this case, they were used to spread the malicious software to unknowing users which in turn results in their details and money being taken. It remains to be seen whether this crackdown on cybercrime will make a significant difference. Stealing information and causing havoc over the internet has its appeal to some users who may not be discouraged by raids on specific targets.
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