18-11-2010, 01:56 AM
The cost of malware removal
A rather wealthy pianist, Roger Davidson was scammed out of $20 million, (around £12.3 million), after taking his laptop in for repair.
The almost impossible to believe plot started back in 2004 when Roger asked Mount Kisco computer store owners Vickram Bedi, 36, and his Icelandic girlfriend Helga Invarsdottir, 39, to rid his computer of a virus.
When they found out how much this guy was actually worth, the pair are alleged to have concocted an elaborate social engineering scam to defraud him - exactly how they executed the fraud reads like something out of an implausible film plot.
According to police, the pair were able to convince Davidson that the virus was in fact a symptom of a much larger plot in which he was being menaced by government intelligence agencies, foreign nationals and even priests associated with Catholic organisation, Opus Dei.
The victim was so convinced was that he is said to have agreed to pay the pair $160,000 per month for 24-hour protection against the fictitious threats, payments which continued until recently.
If convicted, the couple could spend between 8 and 25 years in prison.
A rather wealthy pianist, Roger Davidson was scammed out of $20 million, (around £12.3 million), after taking his laptop in for repair.
The almost impossible to believe plot started back in 2004 when Roger asked Mount Kisco computer store owners Vickram Bedi, 36, and his Icelandic girlfriend Helga Invarsdottir, 39, to rid his computer of a virus.
When they found out how much this guy was actually worth, the pair are alleged to have concocted an elaborate social engineering scam to defraud him - exactly how they executed the fraud reads like something out of an implausible film plot.
According to police, the pair were able to convince Davidson that the virus was in fact a symptom of a much larger plot in which he was being menaced by government intelligence agencies, foreign nationals and even priests associated with Catholic organisation, Opus Dei.
The victim was so convinced was that he is said to have agreed to pay the pair $160,000 per month for 24-hour protection against the fictitious threats, payments which continued until recently.
If convicted, the couple could spend between 8 and 25 years in prison.