Media Coverage
CyberSecurity Malaysia: Beware, your cyberfling could turn into a blackmail scam KUALA LUMPUR: National cybersecurity specialist agency CyberSecurity Malaysia today alerted the public to the dangers of 'cyberflirts', saying it is linked to a rising trend in cyber blackmail scams. Victims are targeted via social networking sites such as Facebook, Tagged and online video chat services such as Skype, with the perpetrators believed to be foreign nationals creating a scam hub in various locations including Malaysia. As the victims have thus far been mainly teenage boys and middle aged men, the culprits are suspected to be working with female accomplices. An analysis of the 80 or so reported incidents thus far revealed the modus operandi of a typical cyber blackmail scam: The perpetrator would usually create a profile on a social networking site portraying him or herself as a beautiful Asian woman, where "she" would befriend and flirt with potential victims, and subsequently invite them to intimate video chats with her using Skype. Unbeknownst to the victims however, "she" would then secretly record the victims during the video chats and blackmail them into remitting sums of money ranging from RM500 to RM5,000 via Western Union or a third party bank account. Failure to do so would result in the video footage being circulated on the Internet. "Only four incidents of cyber blackmail scams were reported to our Cyber999 Help Centre in 2012, but by mid 2013 we saw an upward trend," said Dr Amirudin Abdul Wahab, chief executive officer of CyberSecurity Malaysia. He added that by the end of 2013 that number had increased exponentially to 73 cases, leading CyberSecurity Malaysia to believe that there could be many more unreported incidents. "Malaysians are advised to be extra careful and not to entertain online seductions from women whom they got to know only in social media, but have never really known in person," stressed Dr Amirudin. What to do if you are a victim of such a scam:
CyberSecurity also added general words of advice to Internet users:
Source : http://www.thestar.com.my/Tech/Tech-News/2014/01/07/Beware-your-cyberfling-could-turn-into-a-blackmail-scam-CyberSecurity-Malaysia/ |
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