UK man arrested after pocketed £700,000 with ransomware scams

A man from the UK has been jailed for six years for his part in the distribution of ransomware that tricked victims into believing the FBI had locked their computers.

The Reveton ransomware strain is a less primitive strain of ransomware in that it doesn’t encrypt a user’s important files as more advanced strains will do. However it does lock a user out of their computer and display a message apparently from the FBI telling the victim that their computer was found to be harbouring illegal material, and they would need to pay a fine to unlock their device and relieve themselves of any potential legal consequences.

Reveton ransomware managed to infect computers thanks to a 24 year old man named Zain Qaiser, from Barking in the UK. Qaiser operated by purchasing advertising space on pornography websites. Those adverts redirected to malicious websites that exploited vulnerabilities in a user’s browser in order to trick them into downloading the ransomware.

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And once that ransomware installed, many of his victim’s paid up, simply because it was from adult websites where they had become infected, meaning many victims didn’t search out for help or second opinions. It is estimated that Qaiser made close to a million dollars from his operations, around £700,000.

The Reveton ransomware would ask victims to pay money using the vouchers from Green Dot MoneyPak vouchers, and those would be deposited into the account of one of Qaiser’s co-conspirators and eventually funnelled back to Qaiser using a now shut down digital currency called Liberty Reserve.

Qaiser had a number of underground accomplices, including US based money mules and Russian cyber-crime gangs who helped Qaiser with the malware. However despite being arrested in 2014, Qaiser has only just been charged due to the highly complex and international nature of his crimes.

However justice has finally caught up to the 24 year old man, who will now be spending the next six years in a cell.