Tag Archive for: Scam

12 Persons Arrested For Suspected Involvement In Banking-Related Malware Scam Cases

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A total of 11 men and one woman, aged between 17 and 40, have been arrested for their suspected involvement in the recent spate of banking-related malware scam cases, following an island-wide anti-scam enforcement operation conducted between 9 and 20 October 2023.

Over the course of two weeks, officers from the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) and Police Intelligence Department (PID) mounted simultaneous island-wide operations and arrested 12 persons. Preliminary investigations revealed that the 11 men and one woman had allegedly facilitated the scam cases by relinquishing their bank accounts, Internet banking credentials and/or disclosing Singpass credentials for monetary gains.  

Since January 2023, the Police have received increasing number of reports of malware being used to compromise Android mobile devices, resulting in unauthorised transactions made from the victims’ bank accounts, even when they had not divulged their Internet banking credentials, One-Time-Passwords (OTPs) or Singpass credentials to anyone. In these cases, the victims responded to advertisements (e.g., on cleaning services, pet grooming, food items such as seafood and groceries, etc.) on social media platforms such as Facebook. They were then instructed by the scammers to download Android Package Kit (APK) from non-official app stores to facilitate the purchase, which led to malware being installed on their mobile devices. Subsequently, the scammers convinced the victims via phone calls or text messages to turn on accessibility services on their Android phones. This weakened the phones’ security, allowing scammers to take full control of the victims’ phones. As a result, the scammers could log every keystroke, steal banking credentials stored on the phones, remotely access victims’ banking apps, add money mules as payees, raise payment limits and transfer money to money mules. The scammers could further delete SMSes and email notifications of the bank transactions to cover their tracks.

Police investigations are ongoing. The offence of acquiring benefits from criminal conduct under Section 54(5)(a) of the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes…

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Permanent TSB introduces new security feature to block scam links – The Irish Times

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Permanent TSB has launched a new in-app security tool that will help detect potential scam websites that are targeting the bank’s customers.

PTSB Protect will alert customers if they receive a text message containing a fraudulent link or block them from accessing a suspicious website on their mobile device.

It is an opt-in feature that will require users to allow it to access browser and text message content to work correctly. But it will work differently depending on what mobile platform customers are using, Android users will get an alert when a fraudulent website is found in a text message; iPhone users will have the content blocked, preventing access to the fake site.

PTSB Protect depends on a daily-updated list of fraudulent links that are posing as legitimate websites, trying to scoop up personal details. The links that are received or accessed on the customer’s phone will be compared to it, with content blocked or an alert generated when fake websites are detected.

The move is in response to an increasing problem with fraudulent payments. While extra security measures such as two-factor authentication have been implemented for card payments and access to online banking, fraudsters have become increasingly sophisticated in response.

According to figures from the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland (BPFI), card fraud cost Irish consumers €85 million in 2022. That was an increase of almost 9 per cent on the year before.

“Attempts to defraud customers through criminal activity has increased significantly over the last number of years. Our own research suggests that 75 per cent of Irish consumers have experienced an attempt of fraud with 27 per cent falling victim to it. With scams getting more sophisticated, consumers need to continue to be on their guard at all times,” said PTSB chief operating officer Peter Vance. “By introducing PTSB Protect as a new line of defence to our mobile app, we can now directly identify the source of this activity and help protect our customers before their accounts can become compromised. Financial fraud is a significant threat and it is often being targeted at groups that may think they are less vulnerable.”

The feature has…

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Brunswick woman target of ‘phantom hacker’ scam

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A document that scammers sent a Brunswick woman as they attempted to steal $90,000 in the “phantom hacker” scam. Courtesy photo

A Brunswick woman was recently targeted in an elaborate “phantom hacker” scam involving people posing as tech support workers, banking agents and government officials.

The FBI last month issued an alert regarding this sort of scam and said some victims have lost their life savings.

That nearly happened to a 64-year-old Brunswick woman targeted through a pop-up ad she said she received when she was trying to log into her Social Security and Facebook accounts using the Chrome browser late last month.

“They are so good at what they do,” said the woman, who requested anonymity because she said she’s embarrassed she fell for the scam. “This is ‘Better Call Saul’-level crime.”

The ad said her computer was frozen and her Microsoft account was hacked and directed her to call a customer service number. She called and was asked to download a program that the FBI said gives the scammers remote access to her computer, which she did. The impostor said her account was used to download child pornography and her credit card information was compromised on the dark web.

She was told to call “Det. John Krebs” of the Federal Trade Commission, who claimed criminals involved in drug and human trafficking had used her personal information to set up shell companies and the FTC was investigating whether she was involved. He texted her official-looking documents with the FTC seal and told her to not disclose the information to anyone because the agency viewed her as a possible cooperating witness.

“They had me so convinced I was a suspect in an international crime ring and the only reason they weren’t battering down my door was I was being a cooperative witness,” she said.

She was then called by “Financial Officer Eric Miles” of the FTC, who told her to give him her Social Security number and attempted to persuade her to transfer $90,000 out of her banking accounts to keep it safe from the traffickers. “John Krebs” called her and reminded her not to disclose the information to anyone. “Eric Miles” said the traffickers were…

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Hackers Exploit Interest in Criminal Version of ChatGPT to Scam Other Crooks

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A malicious version of ChatGPT designed to assist cybercriminals has ended up scamming crooks interested in buying access to the service.

In July, we wrote about WormGPT, a chatbot built from open-source code that promised to help hackers churn out phishing messages and malware in return for a monthly fee. The news set off concerns that generative AI could lower the bar for computer hacking, thus fueling cybercrime.

But in a bit of irony, it looks like the WormGPT brand has become more of a threat to hackers than to the public. Antivirus provider Kaspersky noticed several websites that claim to offer access to WormGPT, but seem designed to scam would-be customers into giving up their funds, without actually getting access to WormGPT.

The sites, which can be found on the open internet and through a Google search, have been dressed up with official-looking information about WormGPT. However, Kaspersky suspects the pages are really just phishing pages, designed to trick users in submitting their credit card information or forking over their cryptocurrency to access the malicious chatbot. 

The websites are also likely fake because the creator of WormGPT apparently abandoned the project last month after his identity was exposed. According to security journalist Brian Krebs, WormGPT’s creator is a 23-year-old Portuguese programmer named Rafael Morais, who has since backtracked on marketing his chatbot for malicious purposes. 

Following the report, the user account promoting WormGPT announced in a hacking forum that their team was bailing on the project. “With great sadness, I come to inform everyone about the end of the WormGPT project. From the beginning, we never thought we would gain this level of visibility, and our intention was never to create something of this magnitude,” the account wrote. 

Weeks before the shutdown, the official WormGPT account on Telegram also warned about scammers impersonating the chatbot’s brand. “We don’t have any website and either any other groups in any platform,” the post said. “The rest are resellers or scammers!”

“Can’t believe how people still getting scammed in 2023,” the same account later added. 

But even though WormGPT…

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