Fraud Updates 2004
5 November
It has recently been reported that a company handling on-line payments for large retailers has been the target of an attempted cyber-extortion. The company was the victim of a massive Denial of Service attack which may have disrupted up to 4m credit card payments to 3,500 retailers. The criminals have demanded that the victim pays $10,000 or they will continue the attack.
The attack is the latest of a wave of cyber-extortion schemes which have targeted on-line banks, retailers and casinos. In October 2004, one gambling website was allegedly threatened with a child pornography smear campaign unless it paid £4,800. The attacks often occur through third party "zombie" computers, usually the machines of innocent users which have been infected with viruses that allow the criminals to secretly control them.
The victims of fraud and extortion should always consider using civil proceedings as a method of recovering stolen assets. It is possible to use court orders to trace stolen assets through different bank accounts and even into assets purchased using the money. Alternatively, if the criminals can be identified, it is possible to freeze their worldwide assets and require them to disclose details of any further assets.
| December 2004 | October 2004 |