The FBI’s 10 Most-Wanted Black-Hat Hackers – #7 and #6

The FBI’s 10 most-wanted black-hat hackers countdown continues this week with No. 7 and No. 6: the co-conspirators Bjorn Daniel Sundin and Shaileshkumar “Sam” P. Jain.

On 26 May 2010, the U.S. District Court of Northern Illinois indicted Sundin, Jain and a third suspect for one count of conspiracy to commit computer fraud, one count of computer fraud and 24 separate counts of wire fraud. Federal warrants for their arrest went out that same day.

Both Sundin and Jain face a maximum prison sentence of 480 years in prison and a whopping $10 million in fines when apprehended.

Though law enforcement has arrested their accomplice, Sundin and Jain have managed to evade the FBI for the past eight years.

From December 2006 to October 2008, Sundin and Jain were both involved in an elaborate spyware scam that tricked customers into purchasing $100 million worth of rogue anti-virus software.

According to an indictment filed by the U.S. District Court of Northern California in 2008, Jain and Sundin at one time owned and operated a number of websites, including discountbob.com and winantivirus.com, that purported to offer Symantec anti-virus software. They conducted their shady business dealings via a fake company called Innovative Marketing, Inc.

Jain and Sundin used email scamming and pop-up security alert ads to direct potential customers to these and other sites. There, unsuspecting users purchased the bogus AV software packages for between $30 and $70.

The criminal duo then ferried the funds from each credit card purchase through several financial institutions until Jain ultimately deposited them into accounts under his control at banks based in the United States and Switzerland.

In all, the scareware campaign targeted customers from more than 60 different countries including the United States, Sweden and Ukraine.

Upon receipt of their goods, customers (Read more...)