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:
- A former US Army soldier has been sentenced to 70 months in prison for hacking telecoms companies
September 28, 2026
A former US Army soldier has been sentenced to 70 months in prison for hacking telecoms companies, stealing sensitive records, and trying to extort more than $1 million from his victims. Cameron John Wagenius, 22, carried out the campaign while serving on active duty. He pleaded guilty in March 2025 to unlawfully transferring confidential phone records, ...
- Recently disclosed Citrix vulnerabilities exploited in the wild
September 28, 2026
Death and taxes are said to be the only certainties in life. Perhaps it’s time to add attackers targeting newly discovered critical flaws in Citrix’s NetScaler application delivery controller and gateway products to that grim list. On Sunday, the company published a bulletin warning of eight CVEs, the worst of which – CVE-2026-88771 and CVE-2026-88772 – ...
- FBI agents’ blood tests and doctors’ notes surface after breach
September 28, 2026
BBC News reports it has seen samples of stolen FBI agents’ medical examinations. The “fitness-for-work” reports identify FBI agents by name and address, and reveal even more personal details. They include blood and urine test results and doctors’ notes mentioning high cholesterol, blood in the urine, and even a shellfish and banana allergy. As we reported ...
- Kiteworks urges customers to shut down their servers amid ‘imminent’ threat of cyberattack
September 25, 2026
Technology giant Kiteworks is urging customers to shut down their systems after the company received information that hackers may attempt to target them. Kiteworks (formerly Accellion), which makes tools for transferring large files and sensitive datasets over the internet, confirmed to TechCrunch that it had notified its customers about a potential threat. The news was first ...
- Stolen passwords are exposing America’s water providers to hackers
September 22, 2026
New security research has found that well over a thousand U.S. water and wastewater providers are exposed to hacks due to malware that’s capable of stealing their employees’ passwords and active logged-in sessions. The findings by cybersecurity defense firm SpyCloud underscore how water providers and other critical infrastructure can be compromised with relative ease amidst a ...
- ShinyHunters hackers say they breached FBI, stole data on bureau employees
September 22, 2026
The digital extortion group known as “ShinyHunters” said on Tuesday that it had breached the Federal Bureau of Investigation and stolen data on a huge number of current and former FBI employees. The bureau did not respond to repeated messages seeking comment on Tuesday. In a statement posted to its dark-web site and during an online chat ...