US charges 7 in alleged click fraud scam

United States' authorities have charged seven people living in Estonia and Russia with using malicious software to hijack millions of computers worldwide to redirect Internet searches toward online ads.

Starting in 2007, the suspects created fake companies that contracted with legitimate advertiser websites to drive Internet traffic toward their Internet pages, according to a Manhattan federal court indictment.

About 4 million computers in 100 countries including the United States were infected with malicious software designed by the defendants that would redirect an Internet user's browser toward the online advertisements, the indictment said.

The defendants were paid about $14 million by advertisers based on the amount of "clicks" the ad pages would receive, it said.

Six Estonians were arrested on Tuesday, Manhattan US attorney Preet Bharara said, while the seventh person, a Russian citizen, remains at large.

Of the roughly 500,000 infected American computers, about 130 belonged to NASA, Paul Martin, the US space agency's inspector general, told reporters.

It was NASA that first discovered the malicious software.

Each of the accused faces five criminal charges including conspiracy to commit wire fraud and computer intrusion. One defendant faces an additional 22 money laundering counts.

The wire fraud charges carry a maximum 30-year prison sentence.

(Reporting by Basil Katz; Editing by Xavier Briand).