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Article: Feds pull plug on massive Internet scam.
- Article from:
- The Boston Herald
- Article date:
- February 20, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Boston Herald. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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With its porno browser sites, stealthy virus-like computer programs and the apparent complicity of the telephone company in a former Soviet republic, the Internet fraud scheme busted by federal officials yesterday sounds a lot like the plot to a James Bond thriller.
But the Federal Trade Commission said the scheme had instead been used by unscrupulous entrepreneurs located on Long Island to defraud computer users of thousands of dollars in bogus phone charges.
And computer experts say the scheme highlights the weaknesses of the Internet, which can still be exploited to rip-off users and damage their computers.
"We've been successful in stopping ...