Wenrou Creators Face Court Trials in China

It came up during the proceedings of a Xuzhou Court that a nasty computer virus called "Wenrou" created by a bunch of crooks has so far stolen personal details of over 8 Million online gamers, reported CHINAdaily on August 12, 2009. The criminals have reportedly sold all the information accessed through the virus.

On July 29, 2009, report of a virus detected at a gaming site was received by the Jiangsu provincial public security bureau. This, later on, led to investigations and the case was solved.

As per the details unraveled by the Court, Wenrou was allegedly developed by Lu and Zeng in May 2007 in order to attack the online gamers. The virus creators embedded the virus into several game sites. PC of a user would get infected by just a simple clicking of mouse on any of those infected sites.

Later, on logging onto the online game, the account details of the user were found stolen and automatically sent to a particular e-mail address. In fact, Wenrou attacked in excess of 1,200 websites, severely destroying the operation of over 40 online games as well as accounting for half of all thefts of Internet game accounts.

Zeng and Lu purportedly updated and improved the virus on being requested by a third accused called Yan. It is claimed that Yan alongwith another defendant Chen was responsible for selling the virus program. The profits were then divided equally among the four as per the agreement of the group.

With the spreading virus program, the gang reportedly developed an extensive sales network of 110 individuals, extending over 16 Chinese provinces.

In relation with the case, 11 defendants were tried in Xuzhou Court on August 11, 2009, while another 30 are likely to face the trial soon. Meanwhile, further details of the case reveal that each of Lu and Zeng supposedly earned in excess of 320,000 Yuan ($46,800), while Yan and Chen earned 310,000 Yuan in total through the virus program Wenrou. Other defendants are claimed to have made upto 500,000 Yuan.

Eventually, online gamers are advised not to play on any unsecure and unreliable online gaming site. In addition to this, they should keep their computers updated with latest anti-malware/anti-virus program to stop viruses from infiltrating their systems.

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» SPAMfighter News - 9/2/2009