FBI: Scam victims may lose Internet in July

For computer users, a few steps could mean the difference between staying online and losing Internet connections this summer.

The problem began when hackers ran an online ad scam that netted at least $14 million -- and, with rogue Internet servers, took control of hundreds of thousands of computers around the world. The United States has the most victims -- about 85,000 and most of them probably are home users -- authorities said.

When the FBI and others arrested six Estonians in November in connection with the scam, the agency replaced the rogue DNS system, a network of computer servers used in Web browsing, with legitimate ones set up by the independent Internet Systems Consortium. But that replacement system, aimed at giving victims time to clean their computers, is costing the federal government about $87,000 and is to be shut down. After July 9, infected users won't be able to connect to the Internet.

"The average user would open up Internet Explorer and get 'page not found' and think the Internet is broken," said Tom Grasso, an FBI supervisory special agent. Here's how the FBI says computers can be checked:

Go to dcwg.org and click on "Detect" in the upper left corner. Once directed to a list on a new page, click on the link corresponding to your language.

Safe computers will get a green logo with the message: "DNS Resolution = Green. Your computer appears to be looking up IP addresses correctly!"

Infected computers will get a red logo and be directed to websites that provide anti-virus tools to fix the problem. -- AP