Peteris Sahurovs, a Latvian hacker known as "Sagade," along with his partner, Marina Maslobojeva, aka "Aminasah," were extradited from Poland to face charges of running a scareware operation that pocketed the crook and his partners over $2 million.

The pair would buy ad space on various web sites supposedly to represent the Best Western hotel chain. However, after a certain period of time, they would switch the ads and replace them with malverts. These malicious ads would redirect the victim to a site that would start downloading malware.

The malware would slow down the victims computer or make it freeze and show a message that they were infected with malware. It would then pop up a message saying they needed to purchase some fake software called "Antivirus Soft" to remove the infection.

The software was sold for $49.95 and would unlock the computer.

U.S. authorities got involved when the hackers placed ads on the website of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The newspaper was force to publicly apologize for the ads and filed a complain which brought in the authorities.

Sahurovs made it to fifth place on the FBI's Most Wanted list with a reward of $50,000 for information as to his whereabouts.

The scam started in 2010 and netted the crooks over $2 million.

Source: Bleeping Computer