Fergie's Tech Blog

'Brilliant' Identity Theft Scheme Targets Child Porn Buyers

Joseph Rhee writes on ABC News' "The Blotter":

A ring of European cyber criminals have devised an ingenious scheme that steals the credit card information of internet buyers of child pornography, law enforcement sources say. Officials call it a "brilliant" system because victims rarely complain for fear of being identified as a child porn purchaser.

Authorities say an on-going investigation centers around an East European crime ring that operates numerous child pornography websites. When a person attempts to purchase access to the sites, they are directed to a bogus payment processor page and instructed to enter their credit card information, including CVC code and expiration date. Investigators say the criminal ring uses the credit card information to purchase new child pornography domain names and ISP hosting space. When victims discover the fraud, instead of reporting it to law enforcement, they typically just pay the charge and report the card lost or stolen, officials say.

posted by Fergie @ 6/16/2007 02:27:00 PM