FBI warns: beware of free online document converter tools

On this case, he stated, “a person will usually search Google for a instrument to transform, let’s say, a Phrase doc right into a PDF. Unhealthy actors will in some instances purchase Google adverts, or manipulate the search rating to have their malicious instrument present up on the high [of the results list]. In some instances, they could reply to questions being requested on web sites like Stackoverflow [to advertise] the malicious instrument.”

As soon as the sufferer executes this system, stated Ullrich, “the instrument will run the malicious code. In some instances, the instrument will simply exit and seem ‘damaged’ to the person. In different instances, the instrument may very well carry out the respectable motion in addition to the malicious motion.”

Moreover, stated Vikki Migoya, public affairs officer for the FBI’s discipline workplace in Denver, in an electronic mail, “scammers attempt to mimic URLs which can be legit — so altering only one letter, or ‘INC’ as a substitute of ‘CO.’  Customers who up to now would sort ‘free on-line file converter’ right into a search engine are weak, because the algorithms used for outcomes now usually embrace paid outcomes, which may be scams.”