Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[prehistoric]

Here's a novel approach to extortion. Has anyone seen this in the wild? Can you guess why they used an Italian telephone number?

[Shel]

"precourtive order" ??
"lawsuite" ??
"will be passes" ??

Maybe, while they are stealing things, they should steal a spill-chucker.

-Shel

[prehistoric]

[battleshooter]

Wow, that's actually a good one, I can imagine guilty (ignorant) souls falling for that one, even with the spelling errors...

[Aitch]

Nice find, prehistoric [though y our latin humour will no doubt be lost on many]

I agree with battleshooter, many [stupid] people will feel so guilty, they'll pay this scammer loadsamoney

Thank you religionists for all the world's guilt - just what we needed

Then no doubt those other thugs claiming copyright legal action, will claim the money should have been paid to them, and demand re-payment of 'stolen' levies, or some such triteness

Aitch

[disciple]

I can't see how you can blame religion... it isn't trying to appeal to people's sense of guilt, but is trying to dupe them into thinking they've been caught for doing something illegal, and threatening them with dire consequences. This is relying on fear - they don't care whether the victim actually believes the illegal act was wrong or not, they only care how scared the victim is.

[battleshooter]

[prehistoric]

This is apparently produced with tools from the Zeus/Koobface gang, because media reports now show another variant.

Shoen Overns and ICPP are familiar. The Kenzero variant is new. With this new localization of the exploit, we have a better idea of which parts come directly from the gang, and which are the work of their clients.

Those behind the exploit appear to be selling credit-card information, rather than actually taking those payments. This transfers risk to someone else. The same originators have put a good deal of thought into schemes for monetizing their work, and transfering risk, in other cases. Money mule recruitment is the classic example.

The originators have already transfered much of the risk of prosecution to those localizing and deploying the software. Much income from sales of tools comes before they hit the news, and is typically hard to trace, because both parties want to hide the transaction. Curiously, people in the risky position appear to think they are the ones doing the exploiting. My guess is that many resemble the typical crack dealer, who lives with his mother because he can't hold a steady job, and doesn't have a reliable income.

Aside: If you want to argue about religion, you can always start a thread for the purpose. In this latest case, the target population has about 2% avowed Christians. About half may believe in some kind of god, (God knows what kind.) The threat here is clearly about public shaming. For Japanese, this is a very serious matter.