Online porn consumers exposed to cyber crimes

Hundreds of Australians accessing pornography online have been caught - some quite literally - with their pants down by cyber criminals who fraudulently claim to be members of the Australian Federal Police.
Using viruses known as ''ransomware'', foreign gangs film users of adult websites by activating the webcams on the users' computers.
The viruses lock the desktop and post an incriminating image of the person on their screen, before warning they have breached federal laws relating to child pornography, copyright or privacy.
The victims are instructed by the hackers to pay a fine of $100 or $199 using a credit card or money transfer service. If credit card details are handed over, further frauds often occur. If the fine is not paid within 72 hours, data files on the computer can be encrypted or wiped.
The police and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission have been inundated with calls from victims of ransomware, which include the ''ukash'', ''reveton'' and ''trojan.ransomlock'' viruses.
''We've taken some very interesting calls. Some people are very open, while others swear they have been hacked while using Facebook.
We had one bloke who was almost in tears because they were caught in their underpants,'' a police source said.
Originating in Russia in 2009, the virus has swept through western Europe, Canada and the US using logos of local law enforcement agencies to lend credibility to the scam.
AFP cybercrime operations manager Commander Glen McEwan has issued several warnings about ransomware, which has evolved over the past six months to evade detection by some anti-virus software, spam filters and firewalls.
''The Australian community is reminded that the AFP does not solicit funds and this message is not associated with the AFP in any way,'' Commander McEwan said. He urged victims to report any cyber fraud to the ACCC website SCAMwatch.
The Australian Crime Commission recently identified ransomware as a new frontier for cyber gangs and an emerging threat to Australia's 12 million internet subscribers.
Sean Kopelke, technology director with IT security firm Symantec has identified 16 versions of malware linked to organised crime gangs in Russia, Europe and the Middle East.
A recent Symantec study of one virus found 68,000 computers were infected within a month, with 2.9 per cent of those ensnared by the scam making payments of almost $400,000.