Sober Worms Confession From Pedophile

A 20-year-old man turned himself into German authorities, apparently admitting to possession of child pornography, after receiving an email generated by a Sober worm variant.

Dubbed Sober.X by some antivirus vendors and Sober.Y by others, the Sober worm sometimes sends an email message spoofing law enforcement. For example, one of the Sober.X messages pretends to be from the CIA and proclaims, "we have logged your IP-address on more than 30 illegal WEbsites." The email message then demands the recipient open the (infected) attachment and "answer our questions!"

The German version of the Sober.X worm spoofs the Federal Criminal Investigation Office known as the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA). Had the man visited the BKA website, he would have seen several warnings regarding the Sober.X worm impersonating the agency.

Instead, it seems the man's guilty conscience caused him to believe the Sober.X email was legitimate, at which time he contacted the BKA and confessed. Reportedly the German police have since retrieved child pornography from the man's computer, as well as evidence that he had emailed the photos to others. The man has been criminally charged but his name has not been released.