Scammers Target Neopets Users

An anonymous reader writes "If you have children that play on the popular virtual world game Neopets, you might want to warn them of a social engineering scam gleefully targeting 12-year-old kids. Neopets users looking for rare items are sent private messages from the scammers, who direct them to sites hosting keyloggers & trojans. They then use the infected PC as a means to get to data the parents might have stored there, be it credit card details, Paypal accounts or online banking. Seeing the screenshots of some of these people talking about putting these children into botnets is just unbelievable — if ever you wanted proof that people up to no good online will go to any lengths to get their hands on some money (or even just feel good about outsmarting a 12-year-old), here it is."

Comments

Scumbags

[Bigbutt]

Jeeze, all scammers are scum of the earth. Why would you expect them to be any different with 12 yo kids?

[John]

Webkinz

[eln]

My kids never got into Neopets, but they have been really into Webkinz for the past year or so. I like the way Webkinz handles things a lot better...there are no open areas where people can chat about just anything. They can chat in common rooms, but only by picking things to say out of a list. There is no possibility of sending links or other such nastiness.

Even sites that do have forums like Nick.com have moderators approve every post. I'm sure it's more expensive to run it that way, but I would think if your site is built to cater to young children, it's incumbent on you to either moderator-approve every posting like Nick does or limit postings to pre-approved phrases like Webkinz does. Anything else is just asking for trouble.

Thank heavens ...

[eck011219]

My daughter spent an entire road trip (two days in the car each way) unlocking her NeoPet. The beeping was enough to make you drive with your elbows so you had both hands free to pull your ears off. Now I can simply say, "honey, if you play with your NeoPet character online, bad people will take all Daddy's money away and we'll have to live under a bridge." Aaaahhh, another aggravation averted. Thanks, scammers!

Re:Thank heavens ...

[FluffyWithTeeth]

You let your children play games other than nethack?

And you call yourself a slahdotter!

Re:Thank heavens ...

[Culture20]

You let your children play games other than nethack?

I can't imagine the paranoia of a child raised on nethack, but I'll try:
"Don't go down the stairs carrying too much, Daddy, you'll DIE!"
"Don't pet the kitten, Daddy, it's not named. You'll DIE!"
"Don't drink anything until you've dipped an amethyst or unicorn horn in it or you'll DIE!"

And the parents?

[Toe, The]

Whatever you do, don't blame the parents for:
1. Putting sensitive info on their computer, then
2. Letting their kid use that computer unsupervised, while
3. Leaving that computer relatively unguarded against intrusion.

Sure, not every parent can be expected to be a genius, but if you're going to let children use a computer on the internet, you have responsibilities to act as a sysadmin.

Not to mention responsibilities to act as a guardian. Just as with TV, the computer is not a babysitter. Worse, a net-connected computer is a social interaction tool where every pervert and scammer in the world has direct access to your child. And you're really going to just let them hang out alone with those people?

Re:And the parents?

[YrWrstNtmr]

They are more than welcome to search any of my devices for child porn and malware, with a proper warrant.

And they will do so at their facility downtown, and take 18 months to do it.
Yes, you are innocent until proven guilty. But the initial investigation would start with you and your home network.

And, after the case is dropped, the local newspaper might print a retraction, saying that Mr. PitaBred is not guilty of distributing child porn. Of course, after the initial flurry of press coverage, you've lost your job, your kid is taken away for a time by DSS, and your front window has been broken 3 times by angry vigilantes.

The real solution

[Informative]

The real solution is for the kids to have their own computer. And the adults do not use it for online banking, or anything else.

It's hard to believe the cost would be a problem, but if a netbook is too dear, old PCs are being given away. Put Linux on it, and it's their online playpen.

No need to argue about porn and whatnot. All of those concerns can be addressed depending as the age of the computer's owner varies.

and a separate user account

[SuperBanana]

Don't forget a separate "kid only" login. That way, they can't accidentally delete mommy & daddy's Quicken info, and their unprivledged account will be less likely to be able to jump into other accounts and/or the system. Maybe.

Re:OT: Go Play Outside

[RobotRunAmok]

I'm no parent

What you do, then, is you print out your post, and save it in a safe place. Then, read it again, on your first child's 9th birthday, and realize what an ass you sounded like in your callow youth. It's very humbling, and good for the soul. When I first started posting on Usenet in 1991, before I had children, I wrote some incredibly stupid and glib things about parents and parenting. I ran across a box filled with print-outs from that era about six months ago (yes, I did print out my Usenet posts... I was in love with the sound of my own voice way back then too) and was startled by my trite ignorance. I am trying to learn from that experience in lots of ways, but it's a wisdom only painfully won.

Re:I know it's silly, but...

[Remus Shepherd]

This brings up an interesting side issue...

At some point, we (the human race in general, although Slashdotters more specifically) will be giving our kids robotic pets. What happens when they get hacked?