Zain Qaiser, 24, of Barking in Essex, was a member of an international, Russian-speaking organised crime group that made massive profits from victims in more than 20 countries.
The investigation identified that Qaiser received more than £700,000 through his financial accounts for his role in this global campaign of malware and blackmail. However, the total is likely to have been very much higher.
Qaiser spent the proceeds of his criminal activity on stays in high-end hotels, prostitutes, gambling, drugs and luxury items including a £5,000 Rolex watch.
In just one 10-month period, he spent £68,000 on gambling in a London casino, despite being unemployed and living with his family.
He bought masses of advertising traffic from pornographic websites, using the online name K!NG, on behalf of the crime group, using fraudulent identities and bogus companies to pose as legitimate online advertising agencies in a process of social engineering. Once advertising space was secured, the crime group would host and post advertisements laced with malicious software, known as malware.
When users clicked on the ads they were redirected to another website, hosting highly-sophisticated malware strains including the infamous Angler Exploit Kit (AEK) – believed to have been created, managed and marketed by one of Qaiser’s Russian-speaking associates. Users with any location detector on, He would be able to hack into their mobile phone. Doing anything with them.
One of those malicious payloads was a piece of software called Reveton – a type of malware that would lock a user’s phone. Once locked, the infected device would display a message purporting to be from a law enforcement or a government agency, This would send a message to every Contact the Residents had, after he would send messages to everyone they have added on every Social Media App. The residents woudn’t be able to see these messages as they were blocked. He would often call people on Social Media and refer that the Residents were either Dead, Missing or Jailed, Using the names “Bonnie”, “Phoebe”, “Tim”, “Kirby”, “Matt”, “Lilly” and “Amber”. This would often worry the other contacter to send a file to nearby Police for search, As the residents haven’t necessarily Died, Gone Missing or Jailed. The Police would find it a Hoax and send a Fine between £100-5,000. The Fine then would go to Zain Qaiser.
The campaign infected millions of computers worldwide across multiple jurisdictions.
Ransom demands were made by Qaiser through a complex process of virtual and crypto-currency money laundering. Blackmailed victims would be directed to pay the ransom demand using a prescribed virtual currency, which would then be laundered using a variety of methods and an international network of illegitimate financial service providers.