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:

  • 7-Eleven stores in Denmark closed due to a cyberattack

    August 8, 2022

    7-Eleven stores in Denmark shut down today after a cyberattack disrupted stores’ payment and checkout systems throughout the country. The attack occurred early this morning, August 8th, with the company posting on Facebook that they were likely “exposed to a hacker attack”. The translated statement says that the company has closed all the stores in the country ...

  • New GwisinLocker ransomware encrypts Windows and Linux ESXi servers

    August 6, 2022

    A new ransomware family called ‘GwisinLocker’ targets South Korean healthcare, industrial, and pharmaceutical companies with Windows and Linux encryptors, including support for encrypting VMware ESXi servers and virtual machines. The new malware is the product of a lesser-known threat actor dubbed Gwisin, which means “ghost” in Korean. The actor is of unknown origin but appears to ...

  • Twitter breach exposed anonymous account owners

    August 5, 2022

    A vulnerability in Twitter’s software that exposed an undetermined number of owners of anonymous accounts to potential identity compromise last year was apparently exploited by a malicious actor, the social media company said Friday. It did not confirm a report that data on 5.4 million users was offered for sale online as a result but said ...

  • Taiwanese military reports DDoS in wake of Pelosi visit

    August 4, 2022

    Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense confirmed it was hit by a DDoS attack on Wednesday in what has been an eventful week for the island nation, US-Sino relations, and semiconductors. The ministry said the network was attacked around 23:40 with connection restored by 00:30 local time on Thursday. Cabinet spokesperson Lo Ping-cheng said work on heightening ...

  • Attackers leveraging Dark Utilities “C2aaS” platform in malware campaigns

    August 4, 2022

    In early 2022, a new C2 platform called “Dark Utilities” was established, offering a variety of services such as remote system access, DDoS capabilities and cryptocurrency mining. The operators of the service also established Discord and Telegram communities where they provide technical support and assistance for customers on the platform. Dark Utilities provides payloads consisting of ...

  • DDoS attacks in Q2 2022

    August 3, 2022

    Politically-motivated cyberattacks dominated the DDoS landscape in the second quarter of 2022 just as they did in the previous reporting period. ALtahrea Team, a group targeting NATO and its partners, attacked public transportation websites in Israel and the United Kingdom. Israel saw a cyberattack on the Airports Authority, and UK, an attack on the Port ...