Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Cybercrime

Man Pleads Guilty to Role in Malware Protection Scam

A man pleaded guilty Thursday to his role in a computer protection services scam that cheated victims out of nearly $1 million by misleading them into believing that malware had been detected on their computers, federal prosecutors said.

A man pleaded guilty Thursday to his role in a computer protection services scam that cheated victims out of nearly $1 million by misleading them into believing that malware had been detected on their computers, federal prosecutors said.

Himanshu Asri, 33, of Delhi, India, pleaded guilty in federal court in Providence to wire fraud conspiracy, according to the office of U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island, Aaron Weisman.

Asri and his accomplices defrauded U.S. citizens, many of them older than 65, by telling them that malware had been detected on their computers and persuading them to send money for protection services that were not needed or ever provided, prosecutors said.

From January 2015 until January of this year, the fraudsters collected about $940,000 from the victims and attempted to collect as much as $3 million.

Asri, the fourth telemarketing fraudster to be convicted in federal court in Rhode Island in the past three months, faces up to 20 years in prison at sentencing on Feb. 18.

Related: Man Pleads Guilty to Role in $600K Malware Protection Scam

Related: Participant in Phony Tech Support Scheme Pleads Guilty

Related: Tech Support Scammers Exploiting Unpatched Firefox Bug

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Related: XSS Vulnerability Exploited in Tech Support Scam

Written By

Click to comment

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Join us as we delve into the transformative potential of AI, predictive ChatGPT-like tools and automation to detect and defend against cyberattacks.

Register

As cybersecurity breaches and incidents escalate, the cyber insurance ecosystem is undergoing rapid and transformational change.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Cybercrime

The changing nature of what we still generally call ransomware will continue through 2023, driven by three primary conditions.

Cybercrime

As it evolves, web3 will contain and increase all the security issues of web2 – and perhaps add a few more.

Cybercrime

A recently disclosed vBulletin vulnerability, which had a zero-day status for roughly two days last week, was exploited in a hacker attack targeting the...

Cybercrime

Luxury retailer Neiman Marcus Group informed some customers last week that their online accounts had been breached by hackers.

Cybercrime

Zendesk is informing customers about a data breach that started with an SMS phishing campaign targeting the company’s employees.

Cybercrime

Satellite TV giant Dish Network confirmed that a recent outage was the result of a cyberattack and admitted that data was stolen.

Artificial Intelligence

The release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022 has demonstrated the potential of AI for both good and bad.

Cybercrime

A new study by McAfee and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) named a staggering figure as the true annual cost of...