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Scams, whose fault?

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Some good news on the scam front. Worth reading to understand how these phishing scams have become a proper business operation. I have often wondered how effective counter scam activities are.

Five Australians among 37 arrested over global phishing scam following international investigation​

By Niki Burnside
Posted 4h ago4 hours ago

The Australian Federal Police arrested five men in relation to an international cybercrime operation.(Supplied: Australian Federal Police)

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Five Australians are among 37 individuals who have been arrested in relation to an alleged global phishing scam that targeted tens of thousands of people, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said today.

Police said the scam involved 10,000 cybercriminals from around the world who used the platform LabHost to trick victims into providing their personal information, such as online banking logins, credit card details and passwords.

Five arrested over global phishing scam that allegedly claimed about 94,000 Australian victims

Five Australians are among 37 individuals who have been arrested in relation to an alleged global phishing scam that targeted tens of thousands of people, the Australian Federal Police said on Thursday.
www.abc.net.au
 
@basilio I don't know. I won't answer mobile calls with numbers I don't recognise, don't reply to e-mails that have little to no relevance to our business,
Never give any information out on-line.
My life must be sad and boring to some, but all my information stays intact and where it should be, under My/Her control.
 
I watched a movie called 'the beekeeper', completely far fetched, but it was based on a call center scamming business getting its come upence for scamming people.
Like I said completely off the wall gratuitous violence, but it did keep me away from the bar.
Hawaii in a couple of days yeh I'm ready to get my feet on terra firma
 
the thing is, scamming is all over the place to a certain degree, and i'm not exaggerating when i say everywhere, it's just foreshadowed under the guise of legality so we're busy with the most obvious forms of scam like indian call centers, but sales is malicious and how pretty much every product's being marketed as it's all about saying what the target market wants to hear, because honesty and integrity is not a reward, for that humans are to blame for being easily bent (mentally speaking)
 
Interesting story on the ABC how scammers are using AI versions of well known people to push B/S products. Well worth a read.

A couple of takeaways for me.

1) Facebook makes a motza from ads and the biggest customers are scammers. So maybe it isn't in their interest to seriously stop this rubbish - regardless of what weasal words they use.

2) ASIC can identify people who repeatedly create companies that are dodgy dealers. So I wonder why such people can't be simply identified and banned from running any future companies ? 6 strikes and your out sort of thing.

Scammers are using a fake, AI-generated Dr Karl to sell health pills to Australians​

ABC Science
/
By technology reporter James Purtill
Posted Wed 17 Apr 2024 at 5:30amWednesday 17 Apr 2024 at 5:30am

An ad that ran on Facebook and Instagram showing a partly AI-generated Dr Karl endorsing a blood pressure pill.

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Over a long career, Dr Kruszelnicki, often referred to as Dr Karl, has built a reputation for trust and honesty, promoting knowledge of science and debunking misleading public claims.
He now unwillingly finds himself a face of online scams.

"There's hundreds of people advertising this stuff with my name and face on different sites around the world," he says

A fake AI-generated Dr Karl is scamming Australians and the real Dr Karl can't stop it

Scammers on Facebook and Instagram are using a fake, AI-generated Dr Karl to sell health pills to Australians. When users reported the ads to Meta, the company initially said there was nothing wrong with them.
www.abc.net.au
 
This really needs whatever Govt depart that is responsible to grow the necessary coconuts and put a permanent stop to this sort of scamming here in Australia.
Twiggy did start a legal case recently but appears to have fallen over because I would suggest that these forums are perhaps a tad too powerful.
 
Richard Wilkins has disappeared from some of the ads on this site and replaced by Larry Emdur, accompanied by two cop like characters, looking like he's off to jail. Obviously clickbait to some scamming site. I wonder who's next?
 

Here I was thinking that scammers were just pouring money into Farce book to litter the net with their BS ads.
Nuh. The reality is much worse.

Scammers are hacking legit business operations, getting into their accounts and using the business funds to spray the net with scams.
Meanwhile Meta seems to sit on its hands in dealing with this situation.

Hacked Facebook accounts leave businesses out of pocket as ombudsman records spike in Meta complaints​

By national consumer affairs reporter Michael Atkin
Posted 4h ago4 hours ago

Catherine Wilson's MMA gym had its Facebook business account hacked, losing money and access to her main method of marketing.(ABC News: Patrick Stone)

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  • In short: Small businesses that have had their social media accounts hacked are facing a lengthy response process from parent company Meta.
  • Catherine Wilson's business has lost tens of thousands of dollars to hackers locking her out of her accounts.
  • What's next? The government is drafting a new mandatory code that will make sure social media platforms better protect customers against scams.

'A total s***show': Companies losing money after being locked out of Facebook and Instagram

After months of back-and-forth with Facebook's customer support, Catherine Wilson now hates the platform and she's not alone. Complaints about scams targeting businesses on Facebook and Instagram are spiking and for many, it's a bigger fight to get the account back.
www.abc.net.au
 
Though my contracting business hardly advertises these days, it is word of mouth mainly, I have been getting a surge in scammers offering me all sorts of profit-making b/s stories if I am gullible enough to make contact..
 
Came across another scam today. Possibly obvious but it wasn't picked up with Gmail checker.

It was a "confirmation" from Paypal that they were processing a $751.67 payment that was coming out of my account.

Any problems please ring "Joe Blogs" and a number.

A PDF underneath to confirm the payment.

Checked my account on Paypal. Nothing. Rang them up and yes it was a phishing scam. They asked me to forward it to them at
phishing@paypal.com.

Paypal do not send message like this. Worth keeping an eye out.
 
I received several fake bills by email purporting to be from Telstra.

Of the order of $700, when my usual bill is $140.

Reported it to Telstra but the fake bills still appear sometimes.
 
SirRumpole said:
I received several fake bills by email purporting to be from Telstra.

Of the order of $700, when my usual bill is $140.

Reported it to Telstra but the fake bills still appear sometimes.
Click to expand...
Scammers are cranking up for the end of the financial year.
We are getting plenty now.
 
Excellent story on outing and doxxing big time scammers. I also added an url which offers further details of how Lockbit works

Ransoms, tattoos and million-dollar bounties: authorities 'doxx' an alleged cybercrime kingpin​

By Josh Robertson
Posted 2h ago2 hours ago

Dmitry Khoroshev has been sanctioned in Australia and elsewhere for his alleged role in the LockBit cybercriminal gang.(Supplied)

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In the right hands — or the wrong ones — it's the kind of sensitive information that could be used to steal a person's identity and wreak financial havoc in their name.

But the target of this "doxxing" is allegedly one of the world's most prolific cyber criminals, the leader of a ransomware gang so brazen it offered a million dollars to anyone who could turn up information on the real-world identity of a leader known online as "LockBitSupp".
In the end it was authorities in the US, the country most heavily hit by his alleged crimes, who outed Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev, a 31-year-old Russian with crew cut and now a US$10 million (AUD$15.2 million) US government bounty hanging over his head.

Khoroshev is allegedly a leader of LockBit, an online extortion outfit blamed for nearly one in five ransomware attacks on businesses in Australia and thousands more throughout the world.

Authorities strike back at Russian cybercrime gang by unmasking its alleged kingpin

Ransomware outfit LockBit once offered a million-dollar bounty for anyone who could 'doxx' its leader. Now governments including Australia's have obliged.
www.abc.net.au

What we learned from the indictment of LockBit’s mastermind | TechCrunch

Five takeaways from the indictment of Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev, the hacker who U.S. and U.K. authorities accuse of being the mastermind of the LockBit ransomware gang.
techcrunch.com
 
Update on the Ticketmaster hacker situation.
Could be a couple of typos there - but then anything is possible with Ticketmaster.

Ticketmaster Hacker Demands $500K Ransom (Plus $300K Ransom Processing Fee, $220K Ransom Handling Fee)




A dark web group claiming to have hacked the data of hundreds of millions of Ticketmaster customers has demanded the company pay them US$500,000 – or $45 million total when you include the extra processing and handling fees.

In a note posted online (which Ticketmaster was told they could print at home for a small $600,000 fee) the group ShinyHunters said they would release the 1.3 terabytes of customer data as soon as the ransom was paid.

“The cost for the ransom is $500,000. Your total ransom amount will be calculated on the next page. Would you like to upgrade to a special souvenir, limited-edition ransom for an extra $40 million?” the note read.

The group also offered Ticketmaster the opportunity to upgrade their ransom to ‘Refundable’ for just an extra $12 million, which would allow the company to request a refund and then have it later denied.

Ticketmaster Hacker Demands $500K Ransom (Plus $300K Ransom Processing Fee, $220K Ransom Handling Fee) — The Shovel

In a note posted online (which Ticketmaster was told they could print at home for a small $600,000 fee) the group ShinyHunters said they would release the 1.3 terabytes customer data as soon as the ransom was paid.
theshovel.com.au
 
The ABC has done an extended story on a person who gets inside the scammers computer.

The story highlights how Jim Browning (alias) is able to see in real time a scammer cleaning out someones accounts. The sad part about this story was that when the ABC and Jim contacted the victim to let them know he was being taken down... the victim believed the scammer.

Take care.

Inside a scam operation as a cybercrime unfolds​

Background Briefing
/
By Gina McKeon
Posted 2h ago2 hours ago

"Scam-baiter" Jim Browning in a real-time session with Background Briefing as he witnesses an Australian being scammed.(supplied)

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The scammer tells the victim that the money will be transferred into their account, but it will be in cryptocurrency.
On the scammer's screen, it looks like the victim has thousands of dollars invested in crypto.

"That money is fake," Jim Browning* quietly says, watching live as the scammer chats with the victim. "They will never see that money again."

It's late on a Tuesday evening. We have just logged onto a video call with Browning. He says certain scams are active at this hour.
Browning is dressed in a hoodie with a mask covering his face — "Jim Browning" isn't his real name.

His real identity is kept secret to protect him from the scam syndicates he exposes on his YouTube channel of 4 million subscribers.
Browning is a "scam-baiter". He monitors, undetected, scammers operating in real-time, then turns the tables on them.

"At some point, they've tried to run the scam on me, and I have reversed that scam," he says.

"When they have tried to connect to my computer, if you know what you're doing, it's possible to do that in reverse."

Once Browning gains access to the scammers' computers — sometimes with the help of an insider — he can see everything the scammers are doing, including how they interact with their victims all over the world.

We watched as an Australian got scammed. Trying to warn them was harder than you think

"Scam-baiter" Jim Browning takes Background Briefing inside the world of cybercrime and exposes the tactics used to con Australians out of nearly $3 billion a year.
www.abc.net.au
 
Check out this you tube video on Jim Brownings operation.
The second video shows him in operation. Good fun. Unless of course you or anyone you know has been screwewd

Jim Browning

Tracking and identifying scammers who knock my front door, call me or shove popups onto my computer screen. ** Please do not email me asking for help with hacking issues. I cannot help. I require scammers to connect to MY PC before I have any chance of identifying them **
www.youtube.com
 
The ABC is running another story on scams that also manages to feature "Jim Browing".

Industrial size scam factories in the UAT deserts. The story behind those inviting texts we receive morning, noon and night

Scam, sleep and scam again. Inside the scam facility behind those annoying text messages​

Background Briefing
/
By Gina McKeon
Posted 12h ago12 hours ago, updated 8h ago8 hours ago

Models speak with potential victims from inside a Dubai scam compound.(Supplied)

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Out in the desert on the outskirts of Dubai sits a secret scam factory capable of swindling tens of thousands of people at a time.
Inside, the scammers smoke, eat and furiously type on their computers as they pretend to be wealthy Eastern European women or models from Spain.

At least some of the millions of scam text messages baiting foreigners, including Australians, come from this place. It's a sophisticated operation, seemingly out of reach of the victims they target.

But last year the syndicate was uncovered following the chance meeting of an Australian divorcee, a private detective, a YouTube scam-baiter and one of the scammers himself, who worked from the inside to take the operation down.

Inside a secret scam factory where workers pretend to be glamorous models

In the Dubai desert lies a scam factory capable of swindling tens of thousands of people at a time. But one scammer has a secret plan that could shut the whole syndicate down.
www.abc.net.au
 
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