British citizen Zain Qaiser (24) was sentenced to six years of prison. The judge sentenced Qaiser for extorting thousands of porn consumers. With the help of the Russian mafia, Qaiser was able to earn almost 1 million dollars for himself. The total damage is likely to be many times higher.
The London-based Zain Qaiser began his criminal career at the age of 17. He developed a sophisticated system to blackmail visitors of legal porn sites. With the support of the Russian Mafia, he was able to set up an international operation that attracted millions of people to fake porn offers.
In reality, when the victims clicked on the advertising banner, they downloaded hidden malware onto their computer, allowing Qaiser to defacto take over the user’s computer. Then the blackmail began.
Fake message from the FBI
With a fake message from the FBI, the victims of the blackmail were forced to pay $200. Qaiser alone is said to have earned almost 1 million dollars with it and to have financed a life with drugs and heavy partying. According to the BBC, investigators assume that Qaiser’s backers made more than 5.2 million dollars with the blackmail method.
A sophisticated advertising campaign with malware
Qaiser placed hundreds of fake ads on websites using legal advertising networks and was present on some of the most popular porn sites. Investigators found that one of the ads was shown over 21 million times. If a user fell into the trap and clicked on the ad, malicious software was installed on his computer in the background.
After activation, the software took control of the user’s device and superimposed a fake message from the F.B.I. This message contained a threat and the claim that the FBI had made photos of the user without their knowledge and that the victim was about to be prosecuted for downloading illegal media unless the user paid a $200 fine immediately. Apparently, tens of thousands of victims just paid.
Canadian company filed a complaint
Qaiser got exposed through internal investigation of a Canadian advertising network. When this company withdrew his ads from circulation, Qaiser threatened the company with hacking attacks. Instead of giving in to the bold blackmail attempt, the company turned to the authorities for help. There are many similar scams, many of which even work without malware. Qaiser’s method worked for several years. Now the hacker has to go to prison for six years.