Last week, a 36-year-old Romanian man killed his 4-year-old son and committed suicide after ransomware blackmailed him into paying a huge fine or going to prison for 11 years. An isolated incident, but one that shows the consequences of malicious use of the internet.
The Romanian man infected his computer with the notorious “police virus” or ransomware after visiting some adult websites. It seems that the malware asked him to pay a large sum of money or go to jail for the “crime” he committed. The victim thought the message really came from the police.
In a suicide note to his wife, the man explained that he didn't want to go to prison and didn't want to leave his son in debt. He decided to hang himself with his 4-year-old son in the living room of his home, Softpedia reports.
It's one of the most shocking cybercrime stories we've heard so far. There are certainly others that could have ended badly.
For example, in 2011, a New Zealand lawyer was scammed out of nearly a million dollars by Nigerian cyber-scammers. The scammers promised him tens of millions of dollars, but to get it he would have to pay all the taxes supposedly required to complete the transaction.
The lawyer took out loans of $500,000 from one bank and $300,000 from another.
Imagine how he would have felt when he found out that he had given the money to scammers and that there was no way to get it back. He might well have considered suicide as a solution.
Another recent story that could have an unfortunate outcome is the cases of malware-driven threatening messages in Japan. A malicious software began sending seriously threatening messages across the Internet from infected computers. Police arrested several people they believed were sending the messages, only to later prove to be the work of a clever piece of malware.
Another scenario where things could have ended badly. In this particular case, Japanese police showed that they still have a lot to learn about how the Internet works. I guess a raid is done differently when a hacker is targeting than when we're going after someone whose house could be packed with explosives.
This week, we saw a malicious spam campaign telling its recipients that they have cancer. Obviously, cybercriminals only think about the benefits of such a campaign, and do not think about the consequences it may have on its recipients. However, all this also shows that the online community needs the awareness and knowledge that will prevent such unpleasant outbreaks.
