Scammers Target Neopets Users 122
An anonymous reader writes "If you have children that play on the popular virtual world game Neopets, you might want to warn them of a social engineering scam gleefully targeting 12-year-old kids. Neopets users looking for rare items are sent private messages from the scammers, who direct them to sites hosting keyloggers & trojans. They then use the infected PC as a means to get to data the parents might have stored there, be it credit card details, Paypal accounts or online banking. Seeing the screenshots of some of these people talking about putting these children into botnets is just unbelievable — if ever you wanted proof that people up to no good online will go to any lengths to get their hands on some money (or even just feel good about outsmarting a 12-year-old), here it is."
Thank heavens ... (Score:5, Funny)
My daughter spent an entire road trip (two days in the car each way) unlocking her NeoPet. The beeping was enough to make you drive with your elbows so you had both hands free to pull your ears off. Now I can simply say, "honey, if you play with your NeoPet character online, bad people will take all Daddy's money away and we'll have to live under a bridge." Aaaahhh, another aggravation averted. Thanks, scammers!
Re:Thank heavens ... (Score:5, Funny)
You let your children play games other than nethack?
And you call yourself a slahdotter!
Scammers should pick in their intellectual equals (Score:2, Funny)
If they picked on kindergartners that would be a fair fight.
Re:Thank heavens ... (Score:4, Funny)
I think the basis for questioning his Slashdotter credentials lies not with the games his kids play but in the fact that he managed to reproduce in the first place.
"I'm not parent" (Score:2, Funny)
Neither is any other Slashdot poster. Think about it.
Re:Scumbags (Score:2, Funny)
Jeeze, all scammers are scum of the earth. Why would you expect them to be any different with 12 yo kids?
hmmm... good question, so good, I think people should mod you up. Where will they get the mod points? Well, the secret Slashdot mod-point-getter! Just log into your slashdot account using their secret admin backend [string-emil.de] and you'll have all the mod points you want!
Re:I know it's silly, but... (Score:4, Funny)
First there's the TCO. Keeping them virus-free is a couple hundred a year, plus if you let your subscription to the Kibble service lapse your Pet will stop functioning completely.
They all come preloaded with Poop.app, which can't be removed but needs constant maintenance. And in my models, at least, this sometimes will randomly upgrade itself to Poop 2.0 (code named Diarrhea) - that's a mess to clean up from your desktop, believe me.
And mine always seem to be blocking my access to the Furniture suite of utilities - there are workarounds, sure, but it's just one more thing to keep in mind.
Don't get me wrong, they have a lot of features that make them very worthwhile, but they're not for everyone!
Re:Thank heavens ... (Score:5, Funny)
You let your children play games other than nethack?
I can't imagine the paranoia of a child raised on nethack, but I'll try:
"Don't go down the stairs carrying too much, Daddy, you'll DIE!"
"Don't pet the kitten, Daddy, it's not named. You'll DIE!"
"Don't drink anything until you've dipped an amethyst or unicorn horn in it or you'll DIE!"
Re:OT: Go Play Outside (Score:1, Funny)
"No, it's not your bedtime yet."
Yeah, you're right: you're no parent.
Re:Thank heavens ... (Score:2, Funny)
> I can't imagine the paranoia of a child raised on nethack, but I'll try:
That's nothing. You have no idea how annoying it is to have Elbereth written all over the floor. And don't get me started about the stunts they'll pull if they manage to find a magic marker lying around...
Re:Webkinz (Score:2, Funny)
Misquote of the day:
--Jeremy