Inside a Ransomware Money Machine

tsu doh nimh writes "The FBI is warning that it's getting inundated with complaints from people taken in by ransomware scams that spoof the FBI and try to scare people into paying 'fines' in lieu of going to jail for having downloaded kiddie porn or pirated content. KrebsOnSecurity.com looks inside a few of the scams in the FBI alert, and it turns out it only takes 1-3 percent of victims to pay up to make it seriously worth the fraudsters' while."

Comments

Funny how it's not a scam when the lawyers do it

[Nyder]

It should all be considered a scam when someone says pay up or I'll take you to court/press charges/sue/threatens you.

The best defense against scams

[operagost]

The best defenses against scams are still the same:
1. Knowing your right to due process, and
2. Knowing proper spelling and grammar in your native language.

I'm continually dismayed that large numbers of people (possessing enough intelligence to use a web browser) don't realize that the FBI using email or popups to demand summary payment of "fines" without due process is implausible and illegal.

Re:The best defense against scams

[dkleinsc]

There's a couple more rules of thumb that help:
1. It's much harder to cheat an honest person. For example, if you don't download kiddie porn, it's very hard to get you to pay a fine to avoid trials for doing so. The Nigerian prince scam worked only on people who were willing to help somebody commit money laundering.
2. If it seems fishy, it's a scam. Anyone saying "money for nothing" (who's not a member of Dire Straits) should be suspect.

Re:The best defense against scams

[CastrTroy]

I've heard the Nigerian prince scam is designed to be quite unbelievable because they don't want to waste their time with people who have any kind of common sense. It's too hard to get money from people with common sense. I think the same goes for this type of scam. Target enough people and you'll eventually fall upon somebody who watches kiddie porn. And that person will be easy to get money out of, because they'd rather pay money than face the other consequences.

Re:Funny how it's not a scam when the lawyers do i

[darkmeridian]

The difference between blackmail and settlement is that blackmail requires the threat of doing something ILLEGAL if the demands are not met. Whereas, a settlement offer is the forbearance of a LEGAL right if the demands are met. If someone didn't pay me for my work, for instance, I can send a demand letter asking that he pay me or I will sue him for the money, which is a legal right I have. If I demand money or I will shoot him, that's blackmail.

The boundary is close when it comes to porno cases. What if the right to sue is clear cut (the Copyright Laws clearly prohibit downloading the material) but the real damage is the damage to reputation? That becomes closer to the situation of, "Give me money or I'll release this sex tape you made" or "Give me money or I'll tell the world about our love baby."

Re:Scams

[CheshireDragon]

Exactly. If they suspect you have kiddie pr0n they are not going to take a bribe and say 'pay up to keep us quiet.' The first time you will even hear from them they will be kicking in your front door, seize you and all your electronics.

Re:Scams

[ideonexus]

It's easy to laugh and feel superior that a small percentage of people fall for these scams, but what isn't funny is that the people falling for it are mostly senior citizens. Just yesterday my mother-in-law brought me the phone and told me, "It's somebody from Microsoft! They say our computer is infected with a virus!"

I answered the phone and somebody with an Indian accent told me his name was "Todd Moody" and that our computer was sending error messages to Microsoft. Curious about the scam, I let him walk me through opening the application error log and trying to delete some errors from it, to which he exlaimed, "Oh no sir! You cannot delete the errors! This is very very bad! You have a very dangerous trojan virus on your computer!"

If I hadn't been there, my mother-in-law would have handed over her credit card information no questions asked. In fact, my father-in-law had done this in the past. One day I'm going to be a senior citizen and my bullshit detector is going to stop working like it does for everyone else. The Federal Government should be putting a stop to this predatory scumbaggery with extreme prejudice.

When you see this crap, do your civic duty and report it.