Inside the underground fake review trade


Recently, our team exposed sophisticated scam kits designed to steal sensitive data and trick consumers. But underground marketplaces are not just for malware and stolen passwords. They also offer services designed to manipulate your opinion of the products and services you buy every day.

In our latest research, we examined cybercrime forums where sellers advertise illicit “reputation management” services. For the right price, these underground operators offer to flood a product with glowing, five-star ratings or remove negative reviews. This shadowy industry works both ways—artificially boosting reputations and deliberately hiding legitimate complaints.

A major shift we are seeing in this space is the adoption of new technology. We also found that cybercriminals are using AI to automate these fake review campaigns. This could allow them to quickly generate realistic, human-sounding feedback in large volumes without much manual effort.

Read more…
Source:  Malwarebytes Labs


Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox


Related:

  • India’s Airtel dismisses data breach reports amid customer concerns

    July 5, 2024

    Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom operator, on Friday denied any breach of its systems following reports of an alleged security lapse that has caused concern among its customers. The telecom group, which also sells productivity and security solutions to businesses, said it had conducted a “thorough investigation” and found that there has been no breach whatsoever into ...

  • Yet another top US healthcare service provider has been hacked, with patient data exposed

    July 4, 2024

    Following the likes of ChangeHealthcare, Kaiser, Cencora, and several others during the past few months, another major US healthcare service has reported suffering a cyberattack that resulted in the theft of sensitive patient data. This latest victim is HealthEquity, which was on the receiving end of an apparent supply chain attack. In an 8-K form, filed ...

  • Cyber extortion sees huge rise – and small businesses are four times more likely to be hit

    July 4, 2024

    Cyber extortion remains the most prominent threat facing businesses of all sizes across all industries, a new report from Orange Cyberdefense has found. The 2024 Cy-Explorer report worryingly uncovered that the number of victims of cyber extortion scams has grown by 77% year on year. In Q1 of 2024 alone, there were 1,046 organizations that were ...

  • Mekotio Banking Trojan Threatens Financial Systems in Latin America

    July 4, 2024

    The Mekotio banking trojan is a sophisticated piece of malware that has been active since at least 2015, primarily targeting Latin American countries with the goal of stealing sensitive information — particularly banking credentials — from its targets. Originating in the Latin American region, it has been particularly prolific in Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Spain, and Peru. ...

  • Twilio data breach gets a whole lot worse as it confirms hackers accessed Authy user phone numbers

    July 4, 2024

    The recent data breach affecting Twilio may have taken a rather unfortunate extra turn after new reports claim the hackers can single out Authy users from the archives. The infamous ShinyHunters hacking collective recently said it stole 33 million phone numbers from Twilio, and the company has now revealed that the attackers were able to determine ...

  • Europol coordinates global action against criminal abuse of Cobalt Strike

    July 3, 2024

    Law enforcement has teamed up with the private sector to fight against the abuse of a legitimate security tool by criminals who were using it to infiltrate victims’ IT systems. Older, unlicensed versions of the Cobalt Strike red teaming tool were targeted during a week of action coordinated from Europol’s headquarters between 24 and 28 June. ...