Scammers are becoming smarter and more structured in their approach.
This is according to research conducted by Singapore based cybersecurity firm Group-IB which took a closer look at the cybercrime sector during 2021.
Alarmingly, the research found that 57 percent of cybercrimes were scams but scams and those who try to make use of them have evolved.
This is due in part to the rise of SaaS. No, not software-as-a-service but Scam-as-a-service.
“A strong trend that we observed in 2021 was no-frills scammers merging into groups controlled by highly technically skilled villains,” explains deputy head of Digital Risk Protection at Group-IB, Antony Dolgalev.
“Group-IB’s AI-based platform identified somewhere between 75 and 110 scam groups last year, and the average number of cybercriminals per group was 10 members. The average number of scam links per group reached 100. SaaS helped grow not only fraudsters’ appetites, but also the industry itself. In 2021 our DRP [Digital Risk Protection] system tracked 350 groups, reaching up to 390 scam groups at the peak time. The number of cybercriminals in fraudulent groups has increased dramatically, averaging between 100 and 1 000 per group. In turn, their infrastructure has grown proportionally: the average number of scam links per group was between 2 000 and 3 000,” adds Dolgalev.
What Dolgalev says above is incredibly important. Scammers can and will use trustworthy names to gain your trust. These aren’t children in a basement but highly sophisticated organisations that have the resources and means to convince you they are legitimate.
Alarmingly, social media provides a fertile ground for scammers to ply their trade. Scams being advertised on social media increased 13 percent from 2020 and social media posts that are scams increased by 11 percent between 2020 and 2021. The reason scammers use social media is simple: the platforms aren’t moderated very well. This helps scammers as users may feel safer on social media platforms assuming that adverts and posts have been moderated.
As for what the future holds, well we have bad news for the NFT and cryptocurrency crowds.
“The hype in the public space worldwide for metaverses has been growing, so Group-IB DRP analysts expect the amount of scams in metaverses to increase. The same situation applies to cryptocurrencies and NFTs, where scams are already highly popular. The use of deepfakes and voicefakes will also increase — they are among the most common scam methods. Experts predict that de-anonymization tools will be used for blackmailing and victim personalization,” explains Group-IB.
Finally, the largest increase in brand impersonation scams observed by Group-IB by region was in the Middle East and Africa were these scams increased 150 percent between 2020 and 2021.
Be vigilant, and if you suspect you may be being targeted by a scammer, hang up or stop emailing. Contact the organisation the caller or emailer claims to be from directly via phone or an official email address to confirm that they are indeed contacting you.
[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]
