Eastern Europeans fraudsters send Zeus to steal our money
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010
A typical Eastern European fraudster, this morning
Eastern European fraudsters have a God working for them and they’re getting him to steal money from us. Sorta.
See, a new version the Zeus virus has stolen £675,000 from about 3,000 online customers of a British bank thanks to the small matter that most firewalls can’t detect it. Experts at M86 Security, which specialises in online fraud, said the virus checks to see how much money the accounts contain, steals it, and covers its tracks by showing the customer fake bank balances. Clever.
The online security firm rumbled the fraud when it penetrated the criminals’ command server, which is based in Eastern Europe, and found a list of all the cash transfers. The police have been informed a fortnight ago, however, the attacks don’t appear to have stopped.
Bradley Anstis, vice president of technical strategy at M86 says in the Telegraph: “This is an extremely sophisticated version of the virus and it cannot be detected by traditional security software”.
The Trojan, which kicks in as soon as you log-in to your bank account, hijacks your banking session and checks your balance. If you have more than £800 it begins transferring the funds into mule accounts invisibly.
The real oddity of the story, however, is how two thirds of a million pounds has been stolen from 3,000 customers, and yet nobody knows the name of the high street bank involved. Somehow the bank in question has gagged every single customer without a leak to the media. Thank goodness there was a security firm around to investigate and issue a press release on their behalf, eh?
Stay vigilant freaks.




Consumer watchdogs over in the USA have rumbled and killed a four-year scam that was brilliant in its simplicity.
So 
When people are desperate enough for money, they will sometimes turn to insurance fraud as a way to get money because to them, insurance fraud seems victimless. After all, what’s a £5,000 claim for a giant insurance company, right? Nope. It affects everyone who buys insurance due to increased premiums.
Recently retired TV presenter Des O’Connor of Channel 4’s Countdown was the victim of credit card fraud resulting in £1,000 worth of unapproved charges.
feral trolley of the week