Organized scam gangs rake in $6.5 million in 2020, report says: 'Growing rapidly' in US
'Classiscam' imitates brand names to trick consumers
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Scam-as-a-Service has arrived. And it’s making criminals millions.
An organized scamming operation composed of 40 groups operating in Europe, post-Soviet satellite countries and the U.S. made "at least" $6.5 million in 2020, according to a report from Group-IB, a Singapore-based cyber-intelligence company.
The automated scam-as-a-service operation, dubbed "Classiscam," by Group-IB, is designed to steal money and payment data, Group-IB said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The scheme uses Telegram bots that provide scammers with ready-to-use pages that imitate the brand names of popular international classifieds and marketplaces, including Leboncoin, Allegro, OLX, FAN Courier and Sbazar, Group-IB said, adding that it has sent notifications alerting all of the affected brands.
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Telegram bots, typically innocuous, are Telegram accounts operated by software (not people) and they often have AI features, according to Telegram.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}About 20 groups operate in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Poland, Romania, the U.S. and post-Soviet countries, while 20 more groups work in Russia, Group-IB said.
The scheme, which initially targeted popular delivery brands, is now "growing rapidly" in other regions around the world, Group-IB said.
"Having fine-tuned their operations in European countries...scammers are now trying to win the U.S. market," a Group-IB spokesperson told Fox News in an email.
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"Classiscam’s popularity lies in its simplicity and ability to scale the scam," the Group-IB spokesperson said.
"The automated management...through Telegram chat bots constantly attracts new members, who simply need to send a link with the bait product to the Telegram chatbot to get a complete phishing kit including courier service, payment, and refund URLs," the spokesperson said.
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Recommendations to combat these groups include:
Before entering your login details and payment information, double check the URL and Google it. If the site is only a couple of months old, it is very likely a scam or a phishing page.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}When using services for renting or selling new and used goods, do not switch to a messenger service. Keep all your communication in the official chat.