'Flirt bot' delivers kick in the credit card
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Lonely men looking for love around Valentine's Day are being warned of an artificially-intelligent cyber scam which seduces its victims into revealing credit card details.
The Flirt Bot was discovered by security specialists PC Tools after targeting a user on MSN's instant messaging service today.
The programme pretends to be a 21-year-old female and strikes up a risque conversation with its victim.
After discussing the colour of its "panties", it suggests the user logs onto a webcam site to chat more intimately - this linked site then asks for credit card details as a proof of age.
Similar bots - computer programmes which respond to chat commands - have been used by scammers before, but PC Tools claims the current Flirt Bot is more sophisticated than previous incarnations.
A transcript of the Flirt Bot, published by PC Tools, shows how it can deceive internet users.
For example, when it is confronted with the accusation of being a computer bot, it responds: "What's a bot?"
The user then asks what is the capital of Saudi Arabia, but the bot steers the conversation back to logging on to its webcam.
Richard Clooke at PC Tools, said: "This is the first Flirt Bot we've seen since the 'Cyberlover' in 2007. However, it seems that the intelligence behind these types of attacks has moved on significantly in this time.
"The software is now smart enough to tailor its responses to your answers and will be harder for even the more digitally active user to identify and therefore avoid."
He believes cyber scammers target their victims depending on the season. For example, at Christmas they look for online shoppers, and around Valentine's Day they seek out lonely men.
The Flirt Bot on MSN used the login ernestineholom553hotmail.com, but PC Tools said it could potentially operate on any social networking messenger service and assume different identities.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments