F-Secure supports fight against Internet money laundering
ConvergenceAsia staff
20/12/2007

Computer security software company F-Secure is supporting the work of volunteer activists to expose money laundering web sites run by criminal organisations.

Criminals frequently use the Internet to recruit so-called money mules, which enables them to launder stolen funds and money gained from their use of banking-trojans, key-loggers, and phishing.

"We want to support the excellent work carried out by volunteer crime fighters like Bob at Bobbear.co.uk in exposing these activities, and help to build a community of volunteers in the fight against network crime," said Sean Sullivan from the F-Secure Security Labs.

People looking for jobs on the Internet can be tricked into becoming part of a money laundering operation in several ways. The criminals recruit so-called money transfer agents with spam messages and unsolicited emails, by placing job adverts on real recruitment sites, and by creating professional web sites that look perfectly legitimate to the untrained eye. Sometimes the web site is a spoof where the whole template has been stolen from a reputable company.

Volunteer fraud investigator Bob at Bobbear.co.uk has uncovered a number of e-mail based job scams on web sites that Internet users should be aware of. As part of a Web 2.0–style community approach to improve security on the Internet, F-Secure challenged interested volunteer experts to carry out further research on other suspected money laundering web sites that will help to get them shut down.

"Dedicated volunteers like Bob are really helping to improve security on the Internet," said Sean Sullivan from the F-Secure Security Labs.

Collecting evidence that a web site is involved in a money laundering operation is harder than showing it is spreading malware or stealing data from people, he said. “But if we all contribute to the research on how people are being deceived by these web sites, there will be greater awareness of the dangers and less people will sign up as money mules. It means a safer Internet experience for everyone in the end."

The details of the challenge are available at http://www.Bobbear.co.uk and
http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00001314.html.

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