New child porn blackmail scam
 

Child porn used in online blackmail scam

In what appears to be a fairly new online scam, employees have been blackmailed after child pornography was downloaded to their computers without their knowledge.

The scam joins a long list of Internet extortion techniques that have become almost commonplace, but is notable for the fact that it uses illegal material, which could conceivably land the victim in hot water.

The scam, first reported in the February edition of the American CSO Magazine, kicks off with an unsolicited e-mail containing a link to a seemingly innocuous site, in this case about the Summer Olympics in Greece. When the target visits the site, a file transfer from a site in Bulgaria is initiated in the background and pornography is downloaded to the machine, without the user's knowledge or consent.

A few days later the target receives an e-mail threatening to inform his company that he has been surfing pornography at work. The target is given directions on how to find the surreptitiously downloaded files, the ?evidence? that will be presented to management unless he provides his credit card details.

According to the magazine's account, as related by an anonymous chief security officer, more than a dozen employees of a single company were targeted in the scam. Only one reported it, while three provided their credit card details, fearing for their jobs.

http://www.sabcnews.com/sci_tech/int...,53248,00.html