Sober Worm Convinces Pedophile to Turn Self In!   12/21/2005 - 1,193 views, 2 Comments

Summary: The Sober worm, and its fake email from the FBI, has accidentally caused a German pedophile to turn himself in!

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Remember about a month ago, when I reported that the Sober Worm was sending out fake email from the CIA and the FBI, under the name of “Steven Allison”? And how that email claimed that “We have logged your IP-address on more than 30 illegal Websites”?

Well, it seems that a pedophile in Germany received that worm spam, and believing that it was real, turned himself in to the police! And indeed, upon searching his home and computer, the German police found child pornography which he had downloaded from, hey, illegal websites, just like the Sober worm said!

Said Sophos’ Graham Cluely, “We’re used to explaining to people that there’s no such thing as a good virus, but in this case it appears that Sober.z has accidentally scared an Internet pedophile into contacting the police.” The irony, added Cluely, is that up-to-date anti-virus software would have caught the spam before the German pedophile ever had a chance to read it. “If he had been scanning his email for viruses he would never have received the message from the Sober worm.”

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Read more:

»  New Worm Variant Attacking Windows - New Sober Worm Bilingual

»  New Sober Worm Progeny Spews German Hate Spam

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»  New Sober Worm More Titillating for Germans, But Serious Threat to All

For additional similar stories check out our archives on Internet Law, Worms

 

2 Comments »

  1. Somebody out there is using my domain name to send hundreds of emails everywhere pretending to come from me. I know this as my junk folder is filled with emails bounced back to me by receiving ISPs.
    What is this form of email piracy called and what can I do to track down the culprit?

    Comment by Graham Wickens — 6/1/2006 @ 4:39 am

  2. Regarding child pornography, yes-yes, I also received that phony message via Sober.z but I didn’t turned myself in because I was/am not a criminal(!), so… :) Plus, have you discovered, by accident, that the ICQ servers host groups on their forums and chat rooms of pedophiles?! Search with the all-consacrated: “pedo”, “pthc” and/or “lolita” and you will find… something very interesting.

    The gross part is that the ICQ owners, head managers (in all: the responssible ones!) are very irresponssible about their servers, disregarding this… security breach. I would call it a security breach. After all, it’s all about child pornography and they don’t do squat to limitate it!

    P.S.: I am sorry for the grammar. :)

    Thank you!

    Virgona

    Comment by Virgona — 1/15/2007 @ 5:12 pm

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