An Italian convicted of running a porn dialler scam has been locked up on charges of fraud and virus distribution. The 39-year-old, who hasn't been named, was also fined €3000 by a court in Milan. He had admitted being behind a scam targeted Windows users.
It tried to trick users into running a virus (Voltan) which would change their dial-up connection number to a premium rate one. It worked by directing visitors to a site where they could download a screensaver containing the virus. The premium-rate number used is based in Aruba.
More than 57,000 minutes of calls were logged by investigators over three days - which would have seen our crook benefit to the tune of €104,000. But the scam was uncovered when he returned to Italy after visiting Venezuela to try to negotiate extra telephone lines.
View: The Register Coverage
View: La Repubblica Coverage (if you speak Italian)
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