Computer Virus leads to $20 million scam

[sureLoss]

"These two defendants preyed upon, duped and exploited the fears of this victim with cold calculation and callousness," Ms. DiFiore said in a statement. "The systematic method with which they continued the larceny over a period of more than six years is nothing short of heartless."

With knowledge of the victim's family background, police allege, Mr. Bedi turned a routine client call regarding a computer virus into a multimillion-dollar fraud. Ms. DiFiore said Mr. Davidson was the victim of at least a $6 million larceny. The police chief in Harrison, which took the lead in investigating the case, said the amount stolen could be as much as $20 million.


When asked to remove the virus from the laptop, Mr. Bedi allegedly told Mr. Davidson that his computer had in fact been attacked with a virus so virulent that it also damaged Datalink's computers, according to prosecutors.


Mr. Bedi told Mr. Davidson that he had tracked the source of the virus to a remote village in Honduras and that Mr. Bedi's uncle, purportedly an officer in the Indian military, had traveled there in a military aircraft and retrieved the suspicious hard drive, prosecutors said.



In addition, Mr. Bedi told the victim that his uncle had uncovered an assassination plot against Mr. Davidson by Polish priests tied to Opus Dei, according to prosecutors.


Opus Dei was depicted in the popular Dan Brown novel "The Da Vinci Code" as a murderous cult. Mr. Bedi allegedly told Mr. Davidson that his company had been contracted by the Central Intelligence Agency to perform security work that would prevent any attempts by Opus Dei to infiltrate the U.S. government, authorities said.


In addition to the thousands of dollars charged to secure Mr. Davidson's computer, Mr. Bedi and Ms. Invarsdottir allegedly charged thousands more to provide 24-hour covert protection for Mr. Davidson and his family.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...Roger+Davidson

[CaptainCrunch]

Sometimes you really look at these stories and the victims, shake your head and mutter, I can't believe you fell for that.

[habernac]

Yeah, that was my take as well. It's obvious that they inherited their money, because they're way too dumb to have earned it.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Sometimes you really look at these stories and the victims, shake your head and mutter, I can't believe you fell for that.

There are any number of threads on here when I mutter that. Birthers/truthers/moon landing denials/flat earthers/freemen/ etc


http://xkcd.com/808/

[Hemi-Cuda]

as soon as the story mentioned Opus Dei, any possible sympathy i was feeling for the "victims" was gone

a fool and his money...

[HeartsOfFire]

Fraud case aside, if the gullible fools don't get their money back, will no one shed a tear?

[DropIt]

"Also, I'm a space robot."