Trojan Horse Gutting Online Accounts
Malware creates fake account balance
By BOB HANSEN
Updated 5:59 PM PDT, Fri, Oct 2, 2009
Online banking's great, except when it isn't.
Scam artists are creating a fake balance for online bank accounts and stealing money without people knowing it. A warning has been issued about the program making its way onto computers around the country. The URLZone, as it called, has the capability to get around typical fraud detection systems.
“It’s that idea if you take a little bit over a long period of time, you avoid discovery, and if you’re doing this to multiple people, you could literally be racking in hundreds of thousands -- if not millions -- of dollars,” said Darin Anderson of ESET Antivirus Software.
A Trojan Horse is malware that makes its way onto unprotected computers and operates in the background without its owner knowing it.
In the case of the The URLZone Trojan horse, the software is programmed to calculate how much money to steal from an account based on how much money is available. What makes this program even more devious is that as it steals money, it will display a fake balance.
The security firm Finjan said the program is linked to a server in the Ukraine.
First Published: Oct 2, 2009 11:56 AM PDT on NBC San Diego
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