New Internet Porn Scam
I hadn’t heard of this one before. In New Zealand, people viewing adult websites—it’s unclear whether these are honeypot sites, or malware that notices the site being viewed—get a pop-up message claiming it’s from the NZ Police and demanding payment of an instant fine for viewing illegal pornography.
EDITED TO ADD (2/12): There’s a Japanese variant of this called “one-click fraud.”
Thomas Sewell • March 4, 2013 2:15 PM
There’s a U.S./Europe version of that as well which has been around for a while. Claims either Interpol or FBI authority, says it’s a “warning” and that your computer has been locked while running malware to prevent you from leaving the window and popping it back up after a restart. Does have integrated support to pay your fine online though… unusually good customer service obviously giving away that it’s not a real government program. 🙂