The FBI warns the public about criminals targeting US stock investors through social media platforms and messaging service applications (apps). The scheme, known as a “ramp-and-dump” stock manipulation, targets US investors through online engagement, often via social media advertisements or messages promoting an “investment club” of fellow investors, some of which may be bots or fake accounts.
These promotions typically direct victims to secure messaging apps where the group operates. To appear credible, perpetrators may impersonate legitimate brokerage firms or well-known stock analysts. They secretly control a large volume of a low-priced stock and coordinate efforts to inflate its price (“ramp up”) by encouraging investment club members to purchase shares over a period of several weeks or months. Once the price is artificially elevated, the criminals sell off (“dump”) their shares at a profit, leaving unsuspecting investors with significant losses as the stock value collapses.
Read more…
Source: U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation Cyber Division
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox.
Related:
- Former White House CIO Calls for a Cybersecurity Reset
April 12, 2017
The IT community needs a total reset in the way they think about cybersecurity, according to former White House CIO Theresa Payton. “I think back ten years and I realize that we actually haven’t made a single one of your security problems go away, and you need to hold us accountable for that,” Payton said. “Name ...
- Symantec Links Espionage Group to CIA via Tools Exposed by WikiLeaks
April 10, 2017
Symantec announced that it had connected at least 40 attacks across 16 countries where tools obtained and exposed by WikiLeaks via the Vault 7 revelations about CIA’s espionage tactics were used. In a lengthy report, Symantec talks about a highly organized group they named Longhorn and which they linked to all these attacks. While stopping short ...
- Shadow Brokers Group Releases More Stolen NSA Hacking Tools & Exploits
April 8, 2017
A hackers group that previously claimed to have stolen a bunch of hacking tools (malware, zero-day exploits, and implants) created by the NSA and gained popularity last year for leaking a portion of those tools is back. Today, The Shadow Brokers group released more alleged hacking tools and exploits that, the group claims, belonged to “Equation ...
- Federal Agencies Face A New Era Of Cybersecurity Threats
April 6, 2017
Federal agencies should implement new procedures to ensure their workforce is prepared for new cybersecurity threats, warned a federal report Tuesday. The current digital era has brought about technologies that have radically changed society, and allowed for a more convenient way to complete tasks and share information. They’ve also brought new threats that make cybersecurity an ...
- WikiLeaks’ latest release of CIA cyber tools could blow cover on agency hacking operations
April 1, 2017
WikiLeaks’ latest disclosure of CIA cyber tools reveals a technique used by the agency to hide its digital tracks, potentially blowing the cover on current and past hacking operations aimed at gathering intelligence on terrorists and other foreign targets. The release on Friday of the CIA’s “Marble Framework” comes less than a month after the anti-secrecy ...
- New Mirai Variant Carries Out 54-Hour DDoS Attacks
March 30, 2017
A variant of the Mirai malware pummeled a U.S. college last month with a marathon 54-hour long attack. Researchers say this latest Mirai variant is a more potent version of the notorious Mirai malware that made headlines in October, targeting DNS provider Dyn and the Krebs on Security website. The IoT botnet behind the DDoS attacks ...