[ISN] Computer Virus Leads to $20 Million Scam Targeting Pianist Composer

From: InfoSec News <alerts_at_private>
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2010 01:20:03 -0600 (CST)
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/11/pianist-composer-bilked/

By Kim Zetter 
Threat Level
Wired.com
November 9, 2010 

A noted classical pianist, composer and Latin music producer found 
himself drawn into an elaborate years-long extortion scheme that cost 
him between $6 and $20 million after he brought his laptop into a 
computer repairman to help rid it of a virus.

The alleged fraudsters, a computer repairman and his girlfriend in 
suburban New York, convinced the wealthy 58-year-old that he was the 
victim of an especially sophisticated piece of malware controlled by a 
devious group in Honduras, and that he and his family were also targeted 
for harm by a group pf Polish priests out to topple the U.S. government. 
The scam was reported in a statement released by the Westchester County 
District Attorney’s office on Monday and in a New York Times story.

The complex scam continued for six years before the two suspects, who 
claimed to be working with the CIA to thwart the Polish priests, were 
arrested as they prepared to leave on a trip to Iceland.

It began in 2004 when composer Roger Davidson brought his troubled 
laptop to Datalink Computer Products, a shop in the affluent town of 
Mount Kisko, New York, run by Vickram Bedi, 36, and his Icelandic 
girlfriend Helga Invarsdottir, 39. Davidson suspected his computer was 
infected with a virus and was concerned that music compositions he 
stored on the computer would be destroyed.

[...]


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Received on Wed Nov 10 2010 - 23:20:03 PST

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