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Facebook Virus Gang Living in Luxury

Koobface Gang not bothering to hide their identities, location

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Jan 17, 2012 8:40 AM CST

(Newser) – You might think a cabal of cyber criminals who'd ripped off 400,000 to 800,000 Facebook users would be on the run and living deep underground. You'd be wrong. The so-called "Koobface Gang," makers of a Facebook worm that's done just that, is living large in St. Petersburg, Russia, the New York Times reports, and not only aren't they bothering to hide their identities, they regularly broadcast the location of their offices by checking in on Foursquare.

The group has taken equally public and luxurious vacations in places like Monte Carlo, Bali, and Turkey—presumably paid for with money from their virus, which tricks users into buying fake antivirus software. Facebook has been investigating the group and sharing their info with the FBI since 2008, and today announced a drive to share that info with other web companies and security researchers. But for now, their freedom stands as a testament to the difficulty of nabbing cyber criminals abroad.

The Koobface gang is relaxing comfortably in Russia.
The Koobface gang is relaxing comfortably in Russia.   (Shutterstock)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 6 comments
Grandpa_Timbo
Jan 17, 2012 10:37 AM CST
This is one of the dangers of "social networking" and forwarding everything that hits your inbox. Who really needs Facebook, Twitter or any of that other happy horseshit anyway?
carbonated_turtle
Jan 17, 2012 10:32 AM CST
They're not the first people to get rich off of the ignorance of others, and they won't be the last. They're dicks for what they do, but they're probably doing it semi-legally, and being helped by the ignorance of others. If you're not qualified to navigate the internet without being scammed, you shouldn't be on the internet.
Moon
Jan 17, 2012 8:54 AM CST
Newser knows all about this, because they were infected with that virus.
 

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