Category Archives: Web Fraud 2.0

New Ransom Payment Schemes Target Executives, Telemedicine

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Ransomware groups are constantly devising new methods for infecting victims and convincing them to pay up, but a couple of strategies tested recently seem especially devious. The first centers on targeting healthcare organizations that offer consultations over the Internet and sending them booby-trapped medical records for the “patient.” The other involves carefully editing email inboxes of public company executives to make it appear that some were involved in insider trading. Continue reading New Ransom Payment Schemes Target Executives, Telemedicine→

Judge Orders U.S. Lawyer in Russian Botnet Case to Pay Google

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In December 2021, Google filed a civil lawsuit against two Russian men thought to be responsible for operating Glupteba, one of the Internet’s largest and oldest botnets. The defendants, who initially pursued a strategy of counter suing Google for tortious interference in their sprawling cybercrime business, later brazenly offered to dismantle the botnet in exchange for payment from Google. The judge in the case was not amused, found for the plaintiff, and ordered the defendants and their U.S. attorney to pay Google’s legal fees. Continue reading Judge Orders U.S. Lawyer in Russian Botnet Case to Pay Google→

Disneyland Malware Team: It’s a Puny World After All

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A financial cybercrime group calling itself the Disneyland Team has been making liberal use of visually confusing phishing domains that spoof popular bank brands using Punycode, an Internet standard that allows web browsers to render domain names with non-Latin alphabets like Cyrillic and Ukrainian. Continue reading Disneyland Malware Team: It’s a Puny World After All→

Battle with Bots Prompts Mass Purge of Amazon, Apple Employee Accounts on LinkedIn

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On October 10, 2022, there were 576,562 LinkedIn accounts that listed their current employer as Apple Inc. The next day, half of those profiles no longer existed. A similarly dramatic drop in the number of LinkedIn profiles claiming employment at Amazon comes as LinkedIn is struggling to combat a significant uptick in the creation of fake employee accounts that pair AI-generated profile photos with text lifted from legitimate users. Continue reading Battle with Bots Prompts Mass Purge of Amazon, Apple Employee Accounts on LinkedIn→

Anti-Money Laundering Service AMLBot Cleans House

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AMLBot, a service that helps businesses avoid transacting with cryptocurrency wallets that have been sanctioned for cybercrime activity, said an investigation published by KrebsOnSecurity last year helped it shut down three dark web services that secretly resold its technology to help cybercrooks avoid detection by anti-money laundering systems. Continue reading Anti-Money Laundering Service AMLBot Cleans House→

Glut of Fake LinkedIn Profiles Pits HR Against the Bots

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A recent proliferation of phony executive profiles on LinkedIn is creating something of an identity crisis for the business networking site, and for companies that rely on it to hire and screen prospective employees. The fabricated LinkedIn identities — which pair AI-generated profile photos with text lifted from legitimate accounts — are creating major headaches for corporate HR departments and for those managing invite-only LinkedIn groups. Continue reading Glut of Fake LinkedIn Profiles Pits HR Against the Bots→

Fake CISO Profiles on LinkedIn Target Fortune 500s

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Someone has recently created a large number of fake LinkedIn profiles for Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) roles at some of the world’s largest corporations. It’s not clear who’s behind this network of fake CISOs or what their intentions may be. But the fabricated LinkedIn identities are confusing search engine results for CISO roles at major companies, and they are being indexed as gospel by various downstream data-scraping sources. Continue reading Fake CISO Profiles on LinkedIn Target Fortune 500s→

Violence-as-a-Service: Brickings, Firebombings & Shootings for Hire

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A 21-year-old New Jersey man has been arrested and charged with stalking in connection with a federal investigation into groups of cybercriminals who are settling scores by hiring people to carry out physical attacks on their rivals. Prosecutors say the defendant recently participated in several of these schemes — including firing a handgun into a Pennsylvania home and torching a residence in another part of the state with a Molotov Cocktail. Continue reading Violence-as-a-Service: Brickings, Firebombings & Shootings for Hire→

How 1-Time Passcodes Became a Corporate Liability

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Phishers are enjoying remarkable success using text messages to steal remote access credentials and one-time passcodes from employees at some of the world’s largest technology companies and customer support firms. A recent spate of SMS phishing attacks from one cybercriminal group has spawned a flurry of breach disclosures from affected companies, which are all struggling to combat the same lingering security threat: The ability of scammers to interact directly with employees through their mobile devices. Continue reading How 1-Time Passcodes Became a Corporate Liability→

PayPal Phishing Scam Uses Invoices Sent Via PayPal

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Scammers are using invoices sent through PayPal.com to trick recipients into calling a number to dispute a pending charge. The missives — which come from Paypal.com and include a link at Paypal.com that displays an invoice for the supposed transaction — state that the user’s account is about to be charged hundreds of dollars. Recipients who call the supplied toll-free number to contest the transaction are soon asked to download software that lets the scammers assume remote control over their computer. Continue reading PayPal Phishing Scam Uses Invoices Sent Via PayPal→