3 Indicted in $100m Rogue Antivirus Ring

J

John_Keck

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 3, 2010
Messages
379
The guys behind AntiVir 2009 and other fake antivirus programs have been charged with multiple counts of wire fraud.
Three men have been indicted in what the FBI described as an international cybercrime operation that sold $100 million in rogue antivirus software to victims in more than 60 countries.
Click to expand...
 
YES!!! couldn't have happened to better douche bags

although in all fairness it did net me quite a bit of money removing it lol
 
How the hell could people be dumb enough to give these people $100M? I just don't get it. At $50 a pop, that's 2,000,000 complete idiots not even smart enough to say.. "um maybe this just doesn't look right?" before getting out their credit cards.
 
The sad thing is that Reno, the man from Ohio (Amelia is a little town east of Cincinnati), got an Employer of the Year Award a few years ago from the local press. This was before he moved into this business I think, but in the article when he won, he said he was looking to expand his business.
 
darkpaw said:
How the hell could people be dumb enough to give these people $100M? I just don't get it. At $50 a pop, that's 2,000,000 complete idiots not even smart enough to say.. "um maybe this just doesn't look right?" before getting out their credit cards.
Click to expand...

Think of all the computer illiterate out there. You give them $50.00 the pop ups go away. Their PC's still run slow as dirt but they think that is just because their PC's are old. They go out buy a new PC, get infected, pay the $50.00. Some people don't know any better it's why Apple's are selling like hotcakes lately as they don't have the same capacity to get infected that way. You see the fake pop-up on a Apple you click, nothing happens.

Now if only they could patch up Windows to make it stop being so receptive to phishing scams and infections or stop pushing out the operating system without any real security measures built in.

Once you get access to a portion of any Windows OS, you basically have access to the entire users PC. You can't do that with Unix, Linux, FreeBSD, only Windows. Windows 7 is the most secure Windows OS yet and yet these scammers are still able to bypass everything in 7 to infect people with these fake scam anti-virus apps and get them to pay them for something that isn't even real.
 
Why has it taken so long to get these people? I tried one of those anti-virus scans, avg and spybot showed 131 infections, just the same number as the anti-virus scan detected (read as installed)... click the big red X like mad to actually get out of the scan and browser and let the real programs clean up. Here lately these fake scans are jumping up from search redirection.
 
They should display them so all IT techs can do some harm for every computer we fixed because of their software.
 
I wonder how many of these people were running Windows 7? Seriously, though, there's enough easy to use, free and totally safe stuff that you get when you setup Windows Vsta and 7. It should be easy as pie. I wish Microsoft could automatically bundle MSE into Windows but that would draw legal complaints out the yahzoo.

But at any rate, I've setup a number of Windows 7 machines and they seem to be pretty solid, but on chick was running limewire so that's an infection waiting to happen, but totally clean of malware according to MSE after 7 months.
 
darkpaw said:
How the hell could people be dumb enough to give these people $100M? I just don't get it. At $50 a pop, that's 2,000,000 complete idiots not even smart enough to say.. "um maybe this just doesn't look right?" before getting out their credit cards.
Click to expand...
A customer of ours shelled out $200 before figuring it out and calling us.

At least the average rogue AV program takes about 5 minutes to kill, though.
 
Evil said:
Now if only they could patch up Windows to make it stop being so receptive to phishing scams and infections or stop pushing out the operating system without any real security measures built in.

Once you get access to a portion of any Windows OS, you basically have access to the entire users PC. You can't do that with Unix, Linux, FreeBSD, only Windows. Windows 7 is the most secure Windows OS yet and yet these scammers are still able to bypass everything in 7 to infect people with these fake scam anti-virus apps and get them to pay them for something that isn't even real.
Click to expand...

Yah, that's just BS. Any OS will run software if the user allows it. They could just as easily write this stuff for Linux or OSX and if the user is dumb enough to put in their password when it prompts for elevation it'll run. The only place Windows is weaker currently is that it doesn't ask for a password on elevation by default and it has the most market share so it's the biggest target. Stack protections and ASLR can both be defeated on Linux as well and depending on the distro it can be significantly easier then it would be on Windows.

Most of the recent exploits attack PDF, Flash, or Office and not the OS anyways. The PDF exploits would likely run under any OS if someone took the time to code a working exploit.

I use Windows and Linux both every day, the only difference is I'm not deluded in thinking Linux is inherently more secure.
 
Must have fixxed 15-20 of these machines in the last 6 months. Only one customer was stupid enough to admit he paid.
 
Two of the three that are charged do not live within the US.
Colour me stupid, but how are the FBI going to get them?

I guess one of them is from Sweden and they have an extradition treaty with the US, but the Ukraine; Where the 3rd accused lives - Do not.
 
they mentioned DriveCleaner too. I see that all the time advertised on various download sites like CNET and ZDnet. Those huge download button that people tend to click instead of the proper download button for software they're actually looking for. God I hate those buttons, especially when you're trying to help someone online, telling them where they can find programs.

I'm surprised DriveCleaner is also a rogue, considering big-name download sites advertise them.
 
Leo Laport must have gotten 5 calls per show about this thing for the last year!
 
Yeah almost everyone I see with this infecting their machines are running Limewire or something similar...
 
My brother-in-law got caught with one of these last month.

completely hijacked the OS. removed the desktop icons, wouldn't allow any of windows fix-it programs to run.
administrators programs = dead
system restore = dead
control panel = dead

i got lucky and stumbled upon a web site that showed me where the hidden uninstall program was. he still has no idea how he got infected.
 
SkullE said:
My brother-in-law got caught with one of these last month.

completely hijacked the OS. removed the desktop icons, wouldn't allow any of windows fix-it programs to run.
administrators programs = dead
system restore = dead
control panel = dead

i got lucky and stumbled upon a web site that showed me where the hidden uninstall program was. he still has no idea how he got infected.
Click to expand...

Ive had a few come in like that, only not so easy and made things worse when removed..
 
Just because people get infected by such does not mean they are dumb. Most did not know any better. The MAJORITY of the people in the world are computer illiterate and only see computers as just another object. It's easy to laugh at everyone else but you forget that here PCs are a hobby or job for most people.
 
We had a programmer analysist who retired after 35 years come to work about two weeks before he retired and admit that he had put in his credit card to get rid of AntiVirus2008. We gave him shit up until his last day.
 
Finally.

At my work i get about 6+ people a day who bring in their computers to get that fake virus taken out. My store charges 129.99 for a virus removal
 
The title is a little misleading as AntiVir is a product of Avira, which is not the one being talked about.

I'm assuming you were meaning to say Antivirus2010
 
Deltek said:
Finally.

At my work i get about 6+ people a day who bring in their computers to get that fake virus taken out. My store charges 129.99 for a virus removal
Click to expand...

you are complaining about something that is making your store money?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top