Rich Fiscus
20 Oct 2011 2:07
France's 3 strikes law to combat file sharing may not be making any more money for musicians, but it has, apparently been used to line the pockets of some online scammers.
The law, commonly known as HADOPI, the name of the agency tasked with policing the Internet for copyright infringement, involves sending out email notices to suspected infringers.
The scam took advantage of that by sending out notices which appeared to be legitimate but contained a link to a phishing site apparently setup by hacking the server of a legitimate online retailer. The page, which has since been taken down, instructed visitors to either send text messages or place a phone call to premium numbers, resulting in a payment to the scammers.
According to TorrentFreak, the SMS numbers have been identified as the same ones used in another scam.
This is the second online scam which has taken advantage of the HADOPI program. Just over a year ago a phishing scam was uncovered which used fake notices instructing the recipient to visit a website to pay a fine.