on their afternoon. Beth had hired a small electric car called a Reva. It was a convertible, and, while it couldn’t go very fast or far, it was perfect for visiting the local tourist places. Already they’d visited two beaches, three shops, one café, and a place that had a tame flying fox. However, their biggest story was seeing a cassowary. Not down by the beach where the sign had been, but in a sort of swamp alongside the main road. Lora even had a photo of it, which, if you looked carefully, did show some red and purple colours amongst the dark foliage.
They’d just started telling him about their plans for the next day when Ham and Chizza came through from the bar. Luke made the introductions, and then sat embarrassed by the drunken performance of his father, who spoke too loudly, was being too friendly, and had trouble standing upright.
Luke was pleased when Chizza interrupted to say that they needed to get a table, but not so pleased when Ham insisted that Luke join them. He would have much preferred to have dinner with Lora and Beth than with his father, who in his current state was increasingly easy to dislike.
On the way home, Chizza took a detour to his place to pick up a computer card for Luke.
‘You just put it in the slot and enter the PIN on the keypad. Your PIN is 7315. Make sure you remember that.’
Luke looked at the card. It was white except for the black magnetic strip and for the name Luke written neatly in red. ‘Does it charge anyone’s credit card?’
‘No! It gives free access to the computers. You can spend much time. But if other people are waiting, you must let them be first.’ He gave a little smile. ‘They are paying and you are not.’
Back at The Nest, the men headed to the bar after telling Luke that he needed to be ready at about eight in the morning, and he’d better get plenty of sleep as it was going to be a long day.
But Luke was not sleepy. Instead, he went through to the games room and sat down at the only free computer. The other five had guests crouched over the keyboards.
The card and the PIN were accepted. Immediately, the screen changed to the image-viewer program that Ham had sent with his first email. The only difference was that beneath the photos was a message for the guest.
Let others enjoy the sights of Cape Tribulation. Send this viewer and its images to your friends for free. Simply click the attach button on your webmail page and select the CapeTribView.exe file.
Luke read the message several times. CapeTribView.exe was the name of the file that had contained the RatSpyz virus. Was this how the file had ended up on Beth’s computer? There was one way to find out. He went onto webmail and wrote a message to himself. Then he clicked the attachment icon, selected CapeTribView.exe and clicked open. A rotating arrow in the toolbar indicated a virus-checker at work. When nothing was found, the file name was placed in the attachment box. It was as simple as that. The program containing the masked virus was now ready to be sent.
Is that what Ham had done? If so, then it was unlikely that he’d had any idea that he was sending a virus that would eventually lead to the theft of twenty thousand dollars. The same would apply to other people. How easy it would be for guests to think that they were doing the right thing by sending the file to their friends. Luke glanced at the people working on the computers beside him. Should he warn them? Tell them that sending files from these computers was dangerous?
Perhaps not. Not until he had proof, and to get that he needed to get deeper into the computer.
However, he quickly found that to be impossible. He had access to a few applications, but nothing that would let him investigate the system. It looked like Chizza was very good at his job. Suspiciously good. There was no need to tie a computer down so tightly unless you had something to hide. It was then that Luke decided he was wrong about Ham being the scammer.
They’d just started telling him about their plans for the next day when Ham and Chizza came through from the bar. Luke made the introductions, and then sat embarrassed by the drunken performance of his father, who spoke too loudly, was being too friendly, and had trouble standing upright.
Luke was pleased when Chizza interrupted to say that they needed to get a table, but not so pleased when Ham insisted that Luke join them. He would have much preferred to have dinner with Lora and Beth than with his father, who in his current state was increasingly easy to dislike.
On the way home, Chizza took a detour to his place to pick up a computer card for Luke.
‘You just put it in the slot and enter the PIN on the keypad. Your PIN is 7315. Make sure you remember that.’
Luke looked at the card. It was white except for the black magnetic strip and for the name Luke written neatly in red. ‘Does it charge anyone’s credit card?’
‘No! It gives free access to the computers. You can spend much time. But if other people are waiting, you must let them be first.’ He gave a little smile. ‘They are paying and you are not.’
Back at The Nest, the men headed to the bar after telling Luke that he needed to be ready at about eight in the morning, and he’d better get plenty of sleep as it was going to be a long day.
But Luke was not sleepy. Instead, he went through to the games room and sat down at the only free computer. The other five had guests crouched over the keyboards.
The card and the PIN were accepted. Immediately, the screen changed to the image-viewer program that Ham had sent with his first email. The only difference was that beneath the photos was a message for the guest.
Let others enjoy the sights of Cape Tribulation. Send this viewer and its images to your friends for free. Simply click the attach button on your webmail page and select the CapeTribView.exe file.
Luke read the message several times. CapeTribView.exe was the name of the file that had contained the RatSpyz virus. Was this how the file had ended up on Beth’s computer? There was one way to find out. He went onto webmail and wrote a message to himself. Then he clicked the attachment icon, selected CapeTribView.exe and clicked open. A rotating arrow in the toolbar indicated a virus-checker at work. When nothing was found, the file name was placed in the attachment box. It was as simple as that. The program containing the masked virus was now ready to be sent.
Is that what Ham had done? If so, then it was unlikely that he’d had any idea that he was sending a virus that would eventually lead to the theft of twenty thousand dollars. The same would apply to other people. How easy it would be for guests to think that they were doing the right thing by sending the file to their friends. Luke glanced at the people working on the computers beside him. Should he warn them? Tell them that sending files from these computers was dangerous?
Perhaps not. Not until he had proof, and to get that he needed to get deeper into the computer.
However, he quickly found that to be impossible. He had access to a few applications, but nothing that would let him investigate the system. It looked like Chizza was very good at his job. Suspiciously good. There was no need to tie a computer down so tightly unless you had something to hide. It was then that Luke decided he was wrong about Ham being the scammer.
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