In a dragnet launched in the US and several countries in Europe, the FBI has seized computers and servers which are suspected to have been used to run a ‘scareware’ scam.
A ‘scareware’ is a malicious software that scares the infected computer user of fake virus and trick them into providing bank details. The police say that the scam had duped around 960,000 users over $72m into buying fake anti-virus software.
The US Justice Department said that in the coordinated ‘Operation Trident Tribunal’, authorities seized twenty-two computers and servers in the US and 25 others in the UK, Latvia, France, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Sweden.
The Justice Department added that in a raid in Latvia, at least five bank accounts have been seized by authorities. The bank accounts are believed to have been used by the leaders of the scam.
Two Latvians — Peteris Sahurovs, 22, and Marina Maslobojeva, 23 — have also been indicted, the department said.
US assistant attorney general Lanny Breuer said, "These criminal enterprises infected the computers of innocent victims with malicious scareware, and then duped them into purchasing fake anti-virus software."
"We will continue to be aggressive and innovative in our approach to combating this international threat," Breuer said.
However, officials have not confirmed whether the raids were linked to the seizures of servers from a data centre in Virginia, which is believed to have disrupted the services of over 120 websites.
According to a New York Times report, the FBI raided the data centre, owned by Switzerland-based DigitalOne. Company chief Sergej Ostroumow said the action affected "tens of clients" even though they were only after one client, according to the report. Ostroumow has not revealed the FBI’s specific target.
The FBI has not commented on the operation so far.
