Quote:A new automated scam-as-a-service has been unearthed, which leverages Telegram bots in order to steal money and payment data from European victims.
The scam, which researchers call Classiscam, is being sold as a service by Russian-speaking cybercriminals, and has been used by at least 40 separate cybergangs – which altogether made at least $6.5 million using the service in 2020.
These groups have bought into full-fledged scam kits, equipping them with Telegram chatbots for automated communication with victims, as well as customized webpages that lead victims to phishing landing pages. These are all the tools needed to scam victims out of money – when in reality, the victims think they are buying online products.
“Group-IB discovered at least 40 groups leveraging Classiscam, with each of them running a separate Telegram chat-bot,” said researchers with Group-IB, in a Thursday analysis. “At least 20 of these groups focus on European countries. On average, they make around $61,000 monthly, but profits may differ from group to group. It is estimated that all 40 most active criminal groups make $522,000 per month in total.”
First, the cybercriminals who have bought these kits publish “bait ads” on popular marketplaces and classified websites, such as French classifieds site Lebencoin or German logistics industry giant DHL. Products such as cameras, game consoles, laptops or smartphones are posted at deliberately low prices.
If a victim contacts the seller, they are asked to continue communicating through a third-party messenger app, either WhatsApp or Telegram. If these communications occur via Telegram, the ploy uses Telegram chat bots. According to Telegram, bots are Telegram accounts operated by software – not people – that will often have artificial-intelligence features.
Read more: https://threatpost.com/telegram-bots-cla...am/163061/
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