The Voltan Virus Steals Money

Unlike most computer viruses that are out to create havoc and annoyance, the Voltan virus was created to provide its author with stolen riches.

After garnering over $100,000 USD, the suspected creator of the Voltan virus was charged with fraud and computer virus distribution. The Voltan virus, also known as Zelig, first appeared in late October 2003 and is categorized as an Internet e-mail worm. The e-mail message associated with Voltan does not itself contain infected code, but rather contains information directing potential victims to a website where the infected
code resides in the guise of a screen saver program.

Once the virus code residing in the bogus screen saver program is run, the Voltan worm fraudulently changes the phone number victims use to access the Internet to a high-rate phone number based in Aruba. Italian police were able to relatively quickly stop the scam and to put a freeze on the stolen funds.

As the Voltan worm virus presented itself only in Italian, it did not affect many people outside of Italy. The fact that Voltan was created specifically to defraud victims for the monetary gain of its author sets Voltan apart and further stresses the importance of increased international cooperation in tracking down and stopping computer virus
creators.

A more detailed description can be found in the Kaspersky Virus Encyclopedia.