February 10, 2012 | Online

Scammers used porn to extort millions

A group of Japanese extortionists have finally been arrested, after harassing over a million computer users.

The scam involved a group of fake porn and gossip websites. About 20 had been set up, and when users clicked into them they were redirected to a second site. There, if they downloaded a video, their computer system was compromised by a virus.

Said virus then displayed porn that could not be erased until the victim sent money to the site's creators.

Kyoto Prefectural Police announced this week that they arrested the alleged mastermind, Shinya Horimoto. Five other men have also been charged for distributing the virus.

Of the users affected, about 10,000 of them agreed to pay a total of 600 million yen, or $7.7 million, in the past year to get rid of the unwanted adult videos and galleries.

Of course, if porn and sexuality weren't so frowned upon around the world, these men wouldn't have gotten a single cent.

Porn-Packed Virus Hits 1 Million PCs in Alleged Fraud Scheme [XBiz]