KYOTO, Japan — More than 1 million computers have been infected with a virus that displays porn that can’t be erased without sending extortion money to its suspected creators, authorities in Kyoto said Wednesday.
The scheme involved the creation of 20 adult entertainment and gossip websites that led users to another adult site. The virus was downloaded to users' computers if they played a video on the second site.
Kyoto Prefectural Police said that the scheme's mastermind, Shinya Horimoto, and five other men were arrested on suspicion of distributing the virus, which prompted about 10,000 victims to pay about 600 million yen, or $7.7 million, in the past year to get rid of the adult videos and galleries that were stuck on PCs, according to Mainichi Japan.
Horimoto and the five other accused opened bank accounts to accept the transferred funds under 21 corporate names.