Opera is not letting me comment here.

Do these lowlife have to play on people's emotions like that? what if it were their families involved? I hope this shit comes back and bites them in the ass.

Believe me, Uvah... normal people never think or conceive of the danger. Only true sociopaths think like these malware pushers.

Man, that's just f'ked up, plain and simple.

Uvah:  Lowlife is right.  But most scammers really have no conscience.  look at all the (G)reedy (O)l' (P)lutarchs who have defrauded millions from people in the USA, and there has not been even ONE arrest.  These scum have families, and I am sure treat their friends at the country club nicely.  But 'we' are an 'other' to them, and so fair game to be exploited.

What will they do once the shoe is on the other foot I wonder. Somewhere along the line someone will get wise and find a way to exploit them!

To assume that all Republicans are that way is naive, and not critical thinking. Many Democrats as well as many Republicans exhibit self interest/greed, etc. People are people and vilifying whole groups of people does nothing but polarize them.

I think stereotypes reveal our own prejudices rather than the target's actual beliefs.

Better to just be aware of the scammers of every ilk and stripe and avoid the pitfalls of walking around with closed eyes/preconceptions.

The same is true with political parties right around the world.... some members can be tarred with the same brush but not all.  Despite my usual derogatory statements about politicians, which are generally tongue-in-cheek, I have met genuine politicians in my time... from both sides of the Aussie political fence.  I can also say that I've met some [probably a majority] who seem totally unconcerned with the struggles of ordinary folk and are disingenuous toward anyone they consider below their station... again, on both sides of the political fence.

With regard to the scammers/malware proliferators in this instance, any instance, castration is too good for them... but it'd be a start until we could decide what to really do with them.

It can't last forever. Nothing ever does. The law of averages does not recognize who or what you are. Rich, poor, good or evil. Sooner or later, hopefully sooner in this case, every one without exception gets their comeuppance. If you do the dirty to some one then expect it to come back atcha.

With my ex-civics-prof hat on, I completely agree; data to support the point about nobody having a monopoly on corruption is copious. My partisan opinion is less charitable about the GOP because I believe our party has more members who believe public service is an honorable career path, while a dominant faction of the GOP seem to want public service limited to uniformed/armed jobs like cops, firefighters, and soldiers. But all that aspirational prose sticks in my throat a bit when I think of people like Charlie Rangel.

Re "normal people never think" of stuff like this, I trust you weren't meaning to call the folks at trendmicro.com sociopaths. There's definitely a middle ground there for cops, 'security' consultants, & military folks who need to be able to think like villains to deal with what real villains are doing.

Well said, I'm a republican conservative that believes in charity and volunteerism, just not force through the government and practice it with my family.

What?...

Well, my thinking started with Mr. Reagan telling us that "government is the problem" and has lately involved worrying about a few new GOP governors who might well end up giving the larger party more than a bit of political indigestion. Two of them have Scott for a first or last name.

Struggling to get back on topic...Down here in Florida, many of us are very serious about our response to natural disasters. I've privately heckled DrJ for 'cluttering' the Stardock game sites I visit with so many scraps from the IT biz scene. Even though I (rashly?) assume that a solid majorirty of Stardock visitors would already behave as the OP advises, this sort of notice is worth the noise factor for the rest of us if it helps even a few people avoid having their desire to help others used to make money for crooks.

A left handed compliment. Gotta start somewhere, I suppose.

GW Swicord - This is my 'job' here. The decicision re how what I write is cross posted, is a matter of site policy and one made 'far above my pay grade' which is, btw 0.

If you feel it's "clutter", then take it up with Admin at Stardock.

If I read the OP right the sites were put up to spread viruses as opposed to fraudulent collections.  Makes sense in a twisted sort of way.  If you want to spread viruses put them out there in a way that will get a lot of hits.  That is after all what these guys do, and spreading viruses is hardly a mission high on the ethics scale.

The malware they install in your computer will do the financial damage. It generally will take you to phishing sites as well as milking passwords, email contacts and any credit card numbers or banking/personal info on your machine such as your social security number..

I guess my point is that we can probably expect to see these techniques repeated in the future for other major news stories.  (It's probably happened in the past as well, Trendmicro obviously knew to look for it.)

Forewarned and all that.