Hackers Use Trojan to Rob Poker Players Off Their Funds

According to Chief Research Officer, Mikko Hypponen, F-Secure, a vendor of security software, criminals online are employing trojans to rob money from poker players on the Internet, as reported by Pokerlisting on March 12, 2008.

In one incident, a Trojan was installed onto the computer of an online player of a poker game that allowed the Trojan's sender to quietly take an image of the affected player's computer screen. With a Trojan program that does not multiply, it is possible to cause damage such as compromise others' computer security. They are normally transmitted via e-mails but can be downloaded from infected Websites or along with other software as well.

Hypponen said that the company was just probing a case in which a professional poker player suffered an attack from another player against whom he regularly played online. Suddenly, that he started losing and this would regularly happen despite having great cards such as a pocket ace in his hand. If his hands had unbeatable cards, the players on the other side would simply withdraw. And, if he attempted to bluff then also he would be the loser.

In this way, the first player lost several thousands of Euros over a span of few weeks, when F-Secure intervened. Researchers at F-Secure found that the player against whom the losing player often played had transmitted a tool to the latter's account as a means to optimize his personal game but the program contained a Trojan. When the opposite player used the program, he could take an image of the first player's screen that helped him to see all his cards.

According to Hypponen, the attack was rather clever as instead of stealing the account details of the player, the con player robbed the unsuspecting player of his funds in a way that would take the latter much longer to realize the theft.

In nearly similar news back in 2007, Tariq Al-Daour was sentenced to prison after he used a poker site in money laundering amounting to millions of pounds that he used to pay insurgents to fight against Iraqi allied forces.

Related article: Hackers Redirect Windows Live Search to Malicious Sites

» SPAMfighter News - 3/19/2008