Hijacking Google Adsense Accounts - A New Scam of High-Tech Criminals

Posing as a customer who needed to buy a Google Adsense account, the criminal accessed the computer to take control of the account, then sold it to someone else.

Today, August 11, the High-Tech Crime Prevention Police Department - Hanoi City Police Department announced that they have just investigated and clarified the subject who fraudulently appropriated a Google Adsense account, a type of Google account used to rent ads and pay.

According to initial information, the subject of the fraud is Vuong Trong Son (born in 1990), from Yen Thanh, Nghe An; residing in Phuc La ward, Ha Dong district, Hanoi. Based on the verification results, the High-Tech Crime Prevention Police Department has handed over the case to the Investigation Police Agency - Hanoi City Police for further investigation and handling according to authority.

Subject Vuong Trong Son

Previously, through reconnaissance work, the High-Tech Crime Prevention Police Department obtained information about some members on computer forums being tricked by bad guys into buying and selling Google Adsense accounts.

After further verification, the detectives determined that the perpetrators often used social networks to transact with people selling Google Adsense accounts. Under the pretext of checking account information, the scammers would use remote computer access software over the internet (called Team Viewer) to take over the account's administrative rights, then resell it to others.

The police agency determined that at the end of April 2015, through Facebook, Vuong Trong Son contacted to buy back the Google Adsense account of Mr. LVG (born in 1990, in Bac Tu Liem, Hanoi) for 13 million VND. During the transaction, Son suggested using Team Viewer software to access Mr. G's computer to view the account information.

From there, the subject locked the victim's computer, removed the Google Adsense account's admin email, and replaced it with his own. Son then sold the account to a man named P in Ho Chi Minh City for 13 million VND. After a while, seeing that Mr. P did not change the admin email, Son took back the account and sold it to another person for 6 million VND.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Ngo Minh An - Deputy Head of the High-Tech Crime Prevention Police Department, this is a new crime method of high-tech criminals. However, for many different reasons, many victims who lost their accounts or had their money stolen did not report it.

In addition to the above incident, the police initially determined that with similar tricks, Vuong Trong Son also caused 5 other cases of fraud to appropriate Google Adsense accounts. The police recommended that internet users be vigilant against remote computer access software. Absolutely do not let strangers use Team Viewer or similar software to access your computer to take control and steal personal information./.

According to Capital Security