Romance Scammers using Fake Webcam Footage

By Pat Williams

A new evolution in romance scams is about to create tens of thousands of new victims. Online Dating Magazine reports that scammers are now using fake Webcam footage to convincingly deceive victims.

Here’s how it works:

First, the scammer spends weeks inside Webcam chat rooms recording footage of an unsuspecting person on different days. The person being recorded doesn’t know they are communicating with a scammer.

The scammer then tries to deceptively obtain photos of the unsuspecting person by email. The scammer may also find photos on Facebook or via online searches.

Finally, armed with photos and multiple days of Webcam footage of the unsuspecting person, the scammer creates a fake online dating profile to lure victims.

“Up until now scams would consist of communication via an online dating service followed by emails and phone calls,” says Joe Tracy, publisher of Online Dating Magazine. “Now scammers can initiate fake Webcam chats with you to further make you believe the lie. They have full control over the footage. They can pause it, make it jump to a point where the person is laughing, type when the person is typing, etc. It comes off as very realistic and impressive.”

Tracy says that this new scam is creating two types of victims: the person being scammed, and the person who was recorded by Webcam and doesn’t realize their footage is being used in scams.

Imagine a guy named Andrew having a Webcam chat with someone he believes is a 28-year-old traveling businesswoman. The scammer memorizes the illicit video and bookmarks, in advance, certain parts of the video for quick access. So Andrew may see a woman in the Webcam typing while the scammer types, “Andrew, look at this new dress I got today.” The video of the woman in the Webcam then stands up to show off the dress. There’s now no doubt in Andrew’s mind that the person he is chatting with is real when in reality it is someone completely different. It’s possible to have a Webcam chat with the “person” on 18 different occasions and they are wearing 18 different outfits. That’s how elaborate this new scam has become.

Tracy warns that the scam can be taken further, with scammers using recorded Webcam sessions of their victim to scam someone else after they’ve gotten the victim’s money.

“This has taken the romance scam to an entirely new level,” says Tracy. “Word needs to get out quickly to warn people about this new development.”

Tracy says that the best way to test whether you are Webcam chatting with a scammer is to innocently ask them to do something and see if they react. For example, type, “What’s that crawling on the wall behind you?” If the person “pauses” or doesn’t look, then that’s a major red flag. When asked to do something they don’t have footage recorded of, scammers will pause the Webcam video and attribute it to a communication problem while answering your question in the chat window.

Online romance scams are the most successful of all online scams, costing victims worldwide hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

“Some of these scam organizations are making more money that the big online dating services,” says Tracy. “It’s important to warn people so that they don’t fall prey to these elaborate schemes.”

original article here

Hacker Jailed After Spying on Computer Users Using Their Own Cameras

A hacker spied on countless computer users by manipulating their home webcams.

Matthew Anderson, 33, is understood to have sent out 50million ‘spam’ emails containing an attachment for recipients to click on. All of those who did so – believed to be 200,000 – had their computer infected with a virus that left it effectively ‘enslaved’.

Anderson was then able to rifle through private files and saved photographs – and even switch on web cameras attached to the computers. At his leisure he then sat spying into the living rooms or bedrooms of strangers. The victims will have been completely unaware of his watching eyes.

When he was caught in a four-year police operation, officers found he had stored pictures and film of dozens of people in their own homes. Among clips was that of a 16-year-old girl bursting into tears when Anderson began changing words on her computer screen. He then gloated to a fellow hacker about tormenting her, revealing he had been using her webcam for hours, viewing her sisters, and lamenting the fact they were not naked.

Anderson was working in an international hacking gang called ‘m00p’ with at least three others. Only one other, from Finland, has been caught. He was jailed for 18 months today after pleading guilty to ‘unauthorised modification of computer systems’ at Southwark Crown Court in London. However, he is likely to serve just nine months. The court heard the father-of-five, who was born in Rochdale, carried out his crimes in the home of his mother Ruth, 54, in Banffshire, Scotland.

He claimed through his barrister that he joined online chatrooms after being left house-bound by panic attacks in his early 20s. Publicly he ran a computer security firm – offering to protect clients, ironically, from people like himself.

Simon Ward, defending, said Anderson was motivated by ‘the feeling of power that comes from the knowledge that you have control over something that others don’t know you have the control of’.

As well as private home computers, Anderson targeted the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, Oxford University and government computers. But he avoided military sources for fear of detection.

The ‘cutting edge’ software behind his virus has been ranked as among the best in the world.
Anderson was caught after the m00p gang was investigated jointly by Scotland Yard and Finnish authorities when a computer expert at John Radcliffe hospital raised concerns. Anderson was found to have profited by £12,000 by selling on to legitimate marketing firms email addresses harvested from computer address books.

But it was the webcams he used and the personal data, including nude photos and bank account details, which he had access to and copied that is particularly chilling. Investigating officer Detective Constable Bob Burls said Anderson’s initial spam emails typically told recipients they had a computer problem, and offered to fix it. When they clicked on the file, the hacker’s virus was let loose to hijack the computer, although it seemed to continue working normally. From his remote location he could record every word typed, or copy the computer screen at any time.

Anderson and his fellow gang members operated unhindered for years – with around one in 250 spam recipients being taken in.

During police monitoring, Anderson – who used online nicknames including warpig and, warpiglet – successfully enslaved 1,743 computers in just 90 minutes. His fellow gang members were known online as Kdoe, CraDle and Okasvi - with the last, real name Artturi Alm, being the only other hacker brought to justice when jailed in his native Finland two years ago.

Mr Burls said the hacker copied one victim’s will, website passwords, banking passwords.

original article here

Man Held in Indiana Cyberstalking Case

A former youth pastor from Clarksville appeared in court Tuesday afternoon accused of stalking and threatening harm to two teenage girls if they did not perform sexual acts for him online.

An automatic plea of not guilty was entered on behalf of 47-year-old Ronald Wayne Williams. Clark County Magistrate Kenneth Abbott set bond at $100,000 cash-only, and appointed a public defender to represent Williams.

According to a probable-cause affidavit, detectives literally caught Williams with his pants down.

Acting on a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Greenwood Police Department learned that a man was attempting to coerce a 15-year-old girl into performing sex acts on her webcam as he watched.

Detectives took over the girl’s e-mail account and reportedly used evidence from their conversations to trace the suspect to the 2800 block of Blackiston Mill Road and Williams’ computer.

With search warrant in hand, detectives from the Indiana State Police, Greewood Police Department and Clark County Sheriff’s Department knocked on the door to Williams’ residence. Court records state that officer saw Williams pulling up his pants as he walked to answer the door.

Once inside, detectives found Williams’ laptop computer with a live video feed of a partially nude 16-year-old girl performing sex acts. There were also beer bottles and empty food containers, along with about 20 2-liter plastic bottles filled with urine, indicating he may have not wanted to leave his computer to use the restroom.

A detective took over the chat and asked the girl to call the police department. She called and agreed to speak with detectives at the Clark County Sheriff’s Department.

The 16-year-old alleged victim said Williams added her as a friend on MySpace.com in April. She added him because he said he was old friend of her parents. He then allegedly began sending her messages asking her to go on her Webcam and get naked, saying he had embarrassing pictures of her he would spread all over the school if she did not comply.

When she refused, he allegedly threatened to rape her.

In May, she heard the sound of a car honking behind her house. She said Williams messaged her that night, asking if she had heard him honking. She said she feared for her safety and began complying with his demands.

She told police that she began ignoring his messages in July until one day when she went to a swimming pool in Corydon. She said Williams messaged her that night, describing what she and others at the pool were wearing that day. Another day, he said he had seen her at the mall.

The 16-year-old alleged victim saw Williams’ picture for the first time when detectives showed it to her. She said she knew him from church when she was in elementary school and that she had played with his daughters as a child.

Clark County Sheriff’s Department Detective Rachael Lee, who investigated the case, said it is a reminder for parents to watch what their children are doing online.

“I do recommend parents get on their kids’ computers periodically,” she said.

Lee said many laptop computer now come with built-in Webcams, but parents are often unaware of that.

“Some don’t even know their computers have that capability,” she said.

Lee said Williams had been a youth pastor at Georgetown Community Church and more recently Henryville Community Church. Lee said she spoke with church officials in Henryville, who said Williams was removed from his position about a year ago, although she did not say why he was removed.

A message left at the Henryville church late Tuesday afternoon was not returned, while the number listed in a phone director for the Georgetown church had been disconnected.

Williams is charged with 12 felony counts — class C felony child exploitation; three counts of class C felony child solicitation; three counts of class D felony vicarious sexual gratification; three counts of class D felony intimidation; and two counts of class D felony stalking.

He faces 12 to 56 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

original article here

CYBERPATHS DO THIS TO OTHER ADULTS, TOO!

I'm "Ruined for Life"

A Seattle, WA college student says a stalker got into her home and took nude photos of her using her computer's web camera.

It all started when the victim started talking with her alleged cyberstalker in a chat room on the internet.

She says that initial contact turned into cyberstalking.

"And it hurts to know that your privacy is taken away, especially for a young girl," she said. "To have sleepless nights and to be scared that there's a stalker out there."

The young woman told police the person hacked into her webcam which is in her bedroom. Then, he got pictures of her naked.

"And then from that I'm assuming they just saw me on webcam and they decoded it to see me while I was changing."

She says the cyberstalker sent those pictures to her boyfriend and only then did she find out she was being watched.

Fellow students are stunned.

"That's just scary that people can hack in from other computers into someone else's computer," said one woman.

Web cameras look so innocent you almost forget they're there. But with technology the way it is, and hackers the way they are, when you least expect it someone may be watching.

We've seen these cameras used as spycams before. A Bothell family suspected someone was in their house while they were away. They activated their webcam from across the country and caught a burglar in the act.

Then, there are wireless cameras designed for your own private use. But as KOMO 4 News showed you they transmit pictures for anyone to see if they have the right spying technology.

Computer safety expert Ryan O'Hagan says he's seen this invasion of privacy before. "It's like they're sitting right here."

But, simple safeguards can keep crooks out of your web cam.

"I think just basically having a firewall, anti-virus, a strong password on your machine can keep these thieves out and can keep them from getting into your computer, and watching you at home," said O'Hagan.

KOMO 4 News asked the victim in this case if she will ever use a webcam again. "Never, it has ruined me for life," she said.

She hopes by speaking out others will be protected against cyberstalkers.

ORIGINAL

Dan Jacoby used webcam shots taken of his victim, photoshopped them and set up a website (no removed) to extort her into silence as well as to give "selective" information to the FBI!

Credit Card Trails Follow Online Predators!!

Where the Credit Card Trail Leads
By KURT EICHENWALD -- THE NEW YORK TIMES

For almost six years, a little-known Internet company called Neova.net has been quietly processing credit card information for online businesses - among them, Justin Berry and other minors who operate for-pay Webcam sites.

Tracking down the company is challenging. Its Web site is just black-and-blue text on a white background, with little hint of the scope of its business. Its contact information shows it in London, but corporate records list its main offices in Boston, at an address for a private mailbox provider. And its server, the powerful computer that handles transactions and stores the business data electronically, is in California, Internet records show.

Just days after his decision to abandon his pornography business, Justin Berry accessed his operating account at Neova, downloaded the data of his for-pay Webcam site - including the names and credit card information of people who subscribed to his site - and provided it to The New York Times. Until then, Justin had never before known what kind of people paid to see an underage boy film himself in sexual situations.

"I really didn't want to know who they were," he said.

The names numbered more than 1,750; about 200, however, were customers who had signed up multiple times. The Times reduced the listing to a sampling of 300 people in eight cities and attempted to identify the adults who were paying to view child pornography.

In the analysis, The Times cross-referenced the names and locations of subscribers with publicly available records. Often, a name was traced to a company or organization through the subscriber's e-mail address. Subscribers whose identities were not clear, based on public information, were not counted in the sample.

Because of the possibility that some people whose information was on the list may have been victims of identity theft, and to guard the privacy of individuals, The Times is not publishing the names of adults whose credit card payments for Justin's sites were processed by Neova. The company and its principal, however, are targets of a federal investigation into online child pornography, according to court records and government officials; its customer records have been independently obtained by the government.

The detailed personal information accompanying the accounts indicates that virtually all of the customers subscribed using their real names. And the level of chargebacks - reversed payments that occur when customers dispute charges to their credit cards - was relatively low for the accounts, indicating that these subscriptions had in fact been ordered by the cardholders.

The analysis found that few of the subscribers fit the stereotype of online predators as people on the fringes of society. Instead, they included successful members of communities across the country, people whose education and language skills could help them win the trust of underage teenagers.

Of the 300 subscribers to Justin's site whose identities were checked, a large percentage were in professions that placed them in the proximity of children on almost a daily basis. There were pediatricians and elementary school teachers, as well as lawyers who represent children in court. But there were also subscribers whose careers seemed unrelated to children, including a public official in the West and the president of a privately held construction company who used his corporate credit card to sign up for the site.

Experts in the field of child sexual exploitation said such findings - particularly the prominence of adults having careers that placed them near children - were consistent with anecdotal evidence from law enforcement.

"These people go into these professions, like teacher and pediatrician, to get themselves close to kids," said Patrick A. Trueman, the former head of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Justice Department, who is now senior research counsel for the Family Research Council, a Christian conservative organization that promotes policies on marriage and family. "Their desires drive their careers."

Neova.net is not the only online company whose computer records contain the names and identifying information of people paying for child pornography; other large payment processors have had such sites as their customers. In some instances, the processors are legitimate corporations that unwittingly play a role in its dissemination.

A pornographic Web site (now defunct) called bigfunhouse, for example, was dependent on a global Internet payment processing company for handling its credit card billings.

For years, bigfunhouse - which portrayed itself as the most popular site of its kind in America and Europe - offered to members a free link to a second site featuring Webcam videos of boys who were lured into one or two online sexual performances, according to Internet records and customers interviewed by The Times.

E-mail traffic reviewed by The Times showed that, in June, the company that processed credit card charges for bigfunhouse - Verotel, which is based in Amsterdam - received a message purportedly from a teenager whose image was on the site; the message stated that bigfunhouse was carrying child pornography. Verotel - one of the largest credit card processors for Web sites offering digital content, which says it is strongly committed to combating child pornography - replied that it had investigated the claim and had become convinced that it was not true, the e-mail messages showed.

In November, The Times asked Verotel about illegal images, and the company responded that there were none on the bigfunhouse site. The Times provided Verotel with specific information about illegal images, including the identities of people who had been arrested for possessing the material. Verotel severed its relationship with bigfunhouse. Within hours, the pornography site shut down.

The bigfunhouse Web site then changed its message to "Game over. We closed."

Be warned Cyberpaths! Already had TWO of our cyberpaths' credit card trails followed by law enforcement, which led to the closing of a $2Million a year brothel. Another showed this cyberpath on multiple dating sites, scamming women for sex while emptying their bank accounts. Police are now online on TER and similar sites as well as doing forensic searches for cached files - which you can NOT delete - and which remain online in archival files forever.

Be careful what you put online and you DENY doing online. The truth is out there. Encoded & encrypted forever!