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Spam and phishing in Q1 2020
#1
Bug 
Quote:
[Image: sl_spam_report_03-en-strany-istochniki-s...2020-g.png]

Quarterly highlights

Don’t get burned

Burning Man is one of the most eagerly awaited events among fans of spectacular performance and installation art. The main obstacle to attending is the price of admission: a standard ticket will set you back $475, the number is limited, and the buying process is a challenge all by itself (there are several stages, registration data must be entered at a specific time, and if something goes wrong you might not get a second chance). Therefore, half-price fake tickets make for excellent bait.

Scammers tried to make their website as close as possible to the original — even the page with the ticket description looked genuine.There were just three major differences from the original: only the main page and the ticket purchase section were actually operational, tickets were “sold” without prior registration, and the price was a steal ($225 versus $475).

Oscar-winning scammers

February 2020 saw the 92nd Academy Awards ceremony. Even before the big night, websites were popping up offering free viewings of all the nominated films. Fraudsters targeted users eager to see the short-listed movies before the presentation of the awards.

To promote these sites, Twitter accounts were created — one for each nominated film.

Curious users were invited to visit the resource, where they were shown the first few minutes before being asked to register to continue watching.

During registration, the victim was prompted to enter their bank card details, allegedly to confirm their region of residence. Unsurprisingly, a short while later a certain amount of money disappeared from their account, and the movie did not resume.Users should be alert to the use of short links in posts on social networks. Scammers often use them because it’s impossible to see where a shortened URL points without actually following it.

There are special services that let you check what lies behind such links, often with an additional bonus in the form of a verdict on the safety of the website content. It is important to do a proper check on links from untrusted sources.

ID for hire

US companies that leak customer data can be heavily fined by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). For example, in 2019 Facebook was slapped with a $5 billion penalty; however, users whose data got stolen do not receive any compensation. This is what scammers decided to exploit by sending a fake e-mail offering compensation from the non-existent Personal Data Protection Fund, created by the equally fictitious US Trading Commission.

Inspired by the idea of services for checking accounts for leaks, the cybercriminals decided to create their own. Visitors were invited to check whether their account details had been stolen, and if so (the answer was “yes” even if the input was gibberish), they were promised compensation “for the leakage of personal data.”
To receive “compensation,” the victim’s citizenship was of no consequence — what mattered was their first name, last name, phone number, and social network accounts. For extra authenticity, a warning message about the serious consequences of using other people’s data to claim compensation popped up obsessively on the page.

To receive the payment, US citizens were asked to enter their Social Security Number (SSN). Everyone else had to check the box next to the words “I’am don’t have SSN” (the mistakes are a good indicator of a fake), whereupon they were invited to “rent” an SSN for $9. Interestingly, even if the user already had an SSN, they were still pestered to get another one.

After that, the potential victim was redirected to a payment page with the amount and currency based on the user’s location. For instance, users in Russia were asked to pay in rubles.

The scam deployed the conventional scheme (especially common in the Runet) of asking the victim to pay a small commission or down payment for the promise of something much bigger. In Q1, 14,725,643 attempts to redirect users to such websites were blocked.
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