Blackmailers Getting Sneaky – Using Technology To Remain Hidden

Scams

from the though,-it-didn't-work-out dept

Found on Dave Farber’s IP list is this translation of a blackmail scam in Europe where the blackmailer used some fairly sneaky methods to remain anonymous – and to avoid all direct contact with the company he was blackmailing. What he did was to mail the company a steganography program for encoding messages in images. He then had them pull the code off the bank card that had access to the account where the blackmail money was deposited. They then used the stego program to encode that info into an image of a red VW car, which was placed in a fake ad selling used cars on a popular used car buying site. The guy, using an anonymous surfing tool, surfed to the site, downloaded the picture, got the info and made his own copy of the card. Impressive, to say the least. Of course, the info was turned over to the FBI who figured out who the guy was within 24 hours – though, the article doesn’t indicate how. Still, I imagine that these sorts of crimes will only get increasingly sophisticated in the near future.