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To me, online dating these days is not much different than online fraud. I speak from personal experience on both – as someone who has experienced the thrills of online dating sites (NOTE sarcasm here) and has the privilege of witnessing the latest online scams that fraudsters pull on a daily basis. I live in both worlds – and trust me, they are not much different.
Mystery shopper scams are nothing new, but I now have the experience of being personally targeted by one. From my research, most of these scams are carried out in a “pull method,” whereby ads are placed in classified sections asking for applicants for a part time job. I was targeted by someone using the “push method,” whereby a live (fraudulent) check was mailed to me in a haphazardly stuffed envelope with an official looking letter and survey form.
They say history repeats itself, or perhaps this is the story of a community recovering from a catastrophe. Either way, the underground is returning to its former glory, and not just in how much business is being conducted – but how it is conducted.
Everybody knows that the Russian fraudsters are more sophisticated than their English-speaking counterparts. However, this isn’t the only geographic-related difference between fraudsters.
Most consumers know what a virus or a Trojan is, but if you threw the word “scareware” at them, you might get a look as though you were an alien from another planet. Scareware is no different than any other malicious software that finds its way on to your computer. But the best way to [...]
Of all the terms describing identity theft methods, “Vishing” (which stands for “Voice Phishing”) is perhaps the most ambiguous one. A simple Google query for the definition of the term shows just some of its multiple interpretations. But why are fraudsters using this type of attack?
A new iFrame traffic service opened for business to service cybercriminals came from an underground operator who apparently wished to provide his fraudster-buyers with an easy online platform through which they could buy or sell web traffic. Evidently, when used in the context of fraud, one can expect to see junk traffic leading to exploit kit infections, Trojan drive-by download sites, and live phishing pages.
Looking to maximize their profits, fraudsters need to do a whole lot of learning. They can either learn techniques of areas they have not focused on thus far, learn better techniques in the field they already specialize in, or learn new cover stories to improve the techniques they already use. A lot of this learning is done through trial and error. That’s how fraudsters discover vulnerabilities in banks’ processes that allow them to cash out a lot of money with relatively little effort.
So Cyber Monday has arrived, and tens of millions of consumers will be hitting the cyber waves to shop for the best holiday deals around. Most of them will be doing it on company time (myself included, I admit), but hey, my son really wants that video game and I can save 50% today only. But while Cyber Monday is packed with unbelievable deals for holiday shoppers, it is also a time when consumers need to take notice to ensure they don’t fall victim to fraud, and retailers and banks need to be on guard.
Whenever we present about the underground and mention that fraudsters often post compromised credit cards for free we often get the question “Why would they do that?” Considering that unlike the hacker communities of years past, the underground economy is all about the money (and not bragging rights), this is a very legitimate question. After all, if the fraudsters’ goal is to maximize profit, why would they give away stuff they can otherwise sell? The answer is pretty straightforward.
