Facebook Virus Gang Living in Luxury

Koobface Gang not bothering to hide their identities, location
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 17, 2012 8:40 AM CST
Facebook Virus Gang Living in Luxury
The Koobface gang is relaxing comfortably in Russia.   (Shutterstock)

You might think a cabal of cyber criminals who'd ripped off 400,000 to 800,000 Facebook users would be on the run and living deep underground. You'd be wrong. The so-called "Koobface Gang," makers of a Facebook worm that's done just that, is living large in St. Petersburg, Russia, the New York Times reports, and not only aren't they bothering to hide their identities, they regularly broadcast the location of their offices by checking in on Foursquare.

The group has taken equally public and luxurious vacations in places like Monte Carlo, Bali, and Turkey—presumably paid for with money from their virus, which tricks users into buying fake antivirus software. Facebook has been investigating the group and sharing their info with the FBI since 2008, and today announced a drive to share that info with other web companies and security researchers. But for now, their freedom stands as a testament to the difficulty of nabbing cyber criminals abroad. (More Facebook stories.)

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