Experts are alleging that the authors of some of the Internet's recent killer bugs are part of a strategy to steal credit card information and other valuable personal information from Internet users via a "back door" on infected computers, which according to reports can act as bogus online stores that steal credit information through bogus transactions and then move from computer to computer to avoid being traced.
Viruses like MyDoom and many of its variants were known to be disseminators of spam email, but only recently have virus experts begun to realize that other factors were at play. An investigation is reportedly underway to examine which of the recent viruses were strategically designed for purposes of online fraud. In many cases the owner of the computer has no knowledge that their PC is being used to conduct fraudulent transactions.
According to reports, the online stores appear to be legitimate operations that sell discounted goods, software, or other commercial items. Some bogus online stores are even doing their advertising through spam email marketing schemes that work in close connection. Other websites just save the credit card information without charging the account and keep it for later use.
"There are hundreds of infected computers being used, and the websites are changing locations every 10 minutes or so," the head of anti-virus research firm F-Secure said. "Behind every address there is an infected home computer making it impossible to trace the people behind the website."
