Computer virus creator in police custody

A man who is alleged to have developed a trojan virus to extort money has been caught by police in south China’s Dongguan City, local police said in a statement Thursday.

The 22-year-old suspect, surnamed Luo, was apprehended around 3pm on December 5 in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, 24 hours after Tencent, China’s largest gaming and social media company, reported the virus to local police.

Luo was alleged to have confessed that he produced the virus called “cheat” in June 2018, which recorded usernames and passwords of people’s Alipay accounts in order to steal money. He also developed a trojan virus to lock system files on other people’s computers, asking people to scan a QR code and pay 110 yuan (US$15.98) to unlock the files.

Police claimed the virus was spread to over 100,000 computers, resulting in the theft of more than 50,000 pieces of information.

Luo is under detention and further investigation is ongoing.