Collaborate Disseminate
A high-rolling Hushpuppi gets extradited to the United States, Carole details her problems with clipboards and Disposophobia, and our guest becomes the subject of fake news during the Senegalese election.
All this and much much more is discussed in the… Continue reading Smashing Security podcast #186: This one’s for all the Karens!
A U.S. court order has allowed Microsoft to seize control of key domains controlled by fraudsters to halt criminal activity after an increase in scams targeting users of Office 365. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia this week… Continue reading Court Lets Microsoft Seize Web Domains Used in COVID-19 Phishing/BEC Scams and Fraud
The Nigerian native has been extradited from Dubai after a string of over-the-top Instagram posts. Continue reading BEC Hotshot with Opulent Social Media Presence to Face U.S. Charges
A Nigerian national faces charges in the United States emanating from various cybercrime schemes that included business email compromise (BEC) frauds and a number of other alleged infractions. Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, 37, a.k.a. “Ray Hushpuppi”… Continue reading Massive BEC Scheme Run by Nigerian National Dismantled by FBI
An emerging group of scammers masquerading as legitimate business executives is behind more than 200 email-based attacks that aim to swindle hundreds of thousands of dollars from companies, according to new findings. Dubbed “Cosmic Lynx” in research published Tuesday by the email security firm Agari, the group has targeted individuals in 46 countries since July 2019, often victimizing senior leaders in Fortune 500 or Global 2000 firms. It’s the latest in a long line of business email compromise (BEC) gangs, which impersonate trusted associates to request wire transfers or other payments. Unlike alleged operators often identified in U.S. indictments, the Cosmic Lynx group is likely made up of attackers based in Russia, researchers said, in what Agari described as the first-ever Russian crime ring of this kind. More often, prosecutions of accused BEC scammers are against suspects with roots in Nigeria. American victims reported $1.7 billion in BEC-related losses to the FBI last […]
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Continue reading Researchers tie email fraud campaign aimed at Fortune 500 firms to Russian scammers
Researchers warn that Cosmic Lynx targets firms that don’t use DMARC and uses a “mergers and acquisitions” pretext that can lead to large sums of money being stolen. Continue reading First-Ever Russian BEC Gang, Cosmic Lynx, Uncovered
It’s a short jump from a Rolls Royce ride to extradition from the UAE. Goodbye, Dubai, goodbye, Palazzo Versace, hello, Chicago jail cell. Continue reading Flashy Nigerian Instagram star extradited to US to face BEC charges
U.S. officials have sanctioned six Nigerian men for their involvement in email fraud schemes resulting in the theft of more than $6 million from American businesses and individuals. The Department of Treasury announced on Tuesday it had taken action against the accused scammers as part of an effort to stifle business email compromise efforts, in which attackers pose as co-workers, family members or romantic partners. In this case, suspects impersonated executives and potential love interests to obtain victims’ bank account information, usernames and passwords, Treasury officials said. More than 19,000 Americans reported being victimized by such crimes in 2019, leading to $1.5 billion in known theft, according to the most recent figures from the FBI. Reported losses have increased every year since the bureau started tracking BEC figures in 2013, officials said. “Cybercriminals prey on vulnerable Americans and small businesses to deceive and defraud them,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said […]
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For LinkedIn users, receiving unsolicited messages from pushy job recruiters comes with the territory. It’s an annoyance for some, a welcome path toward a new gig for others. What the experience isn’t supposed to entail is the theft of sensitive data from the defense company that employs you. That’s what happened to employees at two European aerospace and defense firms from September to December 2019, according to research published Wednesday. The culprit was an as-yet-unidentified advanced persistent threat (APT) group — hackers that are usually associated with governments. Their methods were relentless, even clumsy at times. The operatives “targeted a large array of employees at both organizations, across different divisions, relentlessly trying to get a foothold in their target’s network,” said Jean-Ian Boutin, head of threat research at ESET, the anti-virus firm that exposed the hacking campaign. At the end of the operation, the hackers tried to bilk one of the European […]
The post How spies used LinkedIn to hack European defense companies appeared first on CyberScoop.
Continue reading How spies used LinkedIn to hack European defense companies
Kenenty Hwan Kim has pleaded guilty to swindling the appliance giant and other companies in a set of elaborate schemes. Continue reading Electrolux, Others Conned Out of Big Money by BEC Scammer