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:

  • Dmitry Khoroshev named as alleged leader of ransomware gang LockBit

    May 7, 2024

    The alleged leader of what was once the world’s largest ransomware outfit, LockBit, has been named as Russian national Dmitry Khoroshev by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), after the seizure of the criminal gang’s infrastructure. Khoroshev, who lived his online life under the name LockBitSupp, has been sanctioned by the UK, US and Australia as ...

  • Exploits and vulnerabilities in Q1 2024

    May 7, 2024

    Software vulnerabilities that threat actors can exploit or are already actively exploiting are a critical component of evolving cyberthreat landscape. In this report, Kaspersky researchers present a series of insightful statistical and analytical snapshots relating to the trends in the emergence of new vulnerabilities and exploits, as well as the most prevalent vulnerabilities being used by ...

  • UK: Cyber attack on Scots health board sees stolen data published on dark web

    May 7, 2024

    A large volume of data stolen during a cyber attack on a health board has been published by a ransomware group. Cyber criminals were able to access a significant amount of data including patient and staff-identifiable information during the attack on NHS Dumfries and Galloway which began at the end of February. Data relating to a ...

  • Financial cyberthreats in 2023

    May 6, 2024

    Money is what always attracts cybercriminals. A significant share of scam, phishing and malware attacks is about money. With trillions of dollars of digital payments made every year, it is no wonder that attackers target electronic wallets, online shopping accounts and other financial assets, inventing new techniques and reusing good old ones. Amid the current threat ...

  • GenAI Is Powering the Latest Surge in Modern Email Threats

    May 6, 2024

    Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools like ChatGPT have extensive business value. They can write content, clean up context, mimic writing styles and tone, and more. But what if bad actors abuse these capabilities to create highly convincing, targeted and automated phishing messages at scale? No need to wonder as it’s already happening. Not long after the ...

  • Portland-based BerryDunn faces lawsuits over data breach affecting 1.1M people

    May 6, 2024

    A Maine accounting firm has been sued after a data breach exposed the personal information of more than a million people. BerryDunn, an accounting firm based out of Portland, is facing lawsuits from nine different people. The lawsuits claim that names and Social Security numbers of 1.1 million people were exposed in the breach involving one ...