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:

  • LockBit ransomware gang claims it ransacked Italy’s tax agency

    July 26, 2022

    The LockBit ransomware crew is claiming to have stolen 78GB of data from Italy’s tax agency and is threatening to leak it if a ransom isn’t paid by July 31. The notorious gang put a notice on its dark-web site adding the agency – the Agenzia delle Entrate – to its growing list of victims. According ...

  • Amadey malware pushed via software cracks in SmokeLoader campaign

    July 24, 2022

    A new version of the Amadey Bot malware is distributed through the SmokeLoader malware, using software cracks and keygen sites as lures. Amadey Bot is a malware strain discovered four years ago, capable of performing system reconnaissance, stealing information, and loading additional payloads. While its distribution has faded after 2020, Korean researchers at AhnLab report that a ...

  • Hacker selling Twitter account data of 5.4 million users for $30k

    July 22, 2022

    Twitter has suffered a data breach after threat actors used a vulnerability to build a database of phone numbers and email addresses belonging to 5.4 million accounts, with the data now up for sale on a hacker forum for $30,000. Yesterday, a threat actor known as ‘devil’ said on a stolen data market that the database ...

  • How Conti ransomware hacked and encrypted the Costa Rican government

    July 21, 2022

    Details have emerged on how the Conti ransomware gang breached the Costa Rican government, showing the attack’s precision and the speed of moving from initial access to the final stage of encrypting devices. This is the last attack from the Conti ransomware operation before the group transitioned to a different form of organization that relies on ...

  • New ‘Lightning Framework’ Linux malware installs rootkits, backdoors

    July 21, 2022

    A new and previously undetected malware dubbed ‘Lightning Framework’ targets Linux systems and can be used to backdoor infected devices using SSH and deploy multiple types of rootkits. Described as a “Swiss Army Knife” in a report published today by Intezer, Lightning Framework is a modular malware that also comes with support for plugins. Read more… Source: Bleeping ...

  • LockBit: Ransomware Puts Servers in the Crosshairs

    July 20, 2022

    LockBit affiliates using servers to spread ransomware throughout networks. Symantec, a division of Broadcom Software, has observed threat actors targeting server machines in order to spread the LockBit ransomware threat throughout compromised networks. In one attack observed by Symantec, LockBit was seen identifying domain-related information, creating a Group Policy for lateral movement, and executing a “gpupdate /force” ...