Internet scams are not new, but the perpetrators are acting with increasing sophistication and international scope in their efforts to fleece consumers.
As eSecurityPlanet reports, the FBI has been tracking one of the biggest cases of so-called “scareware” with the help of its highest profile target, software giant Microsoft. The case is only the latest scareware attack. Other targets of scareware attacks include social networking king Facebook, which was hit earlier this year.
The FBI said late last week that it has filed federal indictments against an Ohio man and two foreign residents in a move meant to halt one of the largest “scareware” malware scams.
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) hailed the indictments on its On the Issues blog because some of the bogus computer protection programs that the schemers were hawking either masqueraded as Microsoft products or strongly implied they were from the company.
According to the FBI’s statement, the alleged perpetrators, who operated out of Ukraine, “caused Internet users in more than 60 countries to purchase more than one million bogus software products, causing victims to lose more than $100 million.”
