Security News > 2020 > November > Interpol Arrests 3 Nigerian BEC Scammers For Targeting Over 500,000 Entities
Three Nigerian citizens suspected of being members of an organized cybercrime group behind distributing malware, carrying out phishing campaigns, and extensive Business Email Compromise scams have been arrested in the city of Lagos, Interpol reported yesterday.
"The suspects are alleged to have developed phishing links, domains, and mass mailing campaigns in which they impersonated representatives of organizations," Interpol said.
In addition to perpetrating BEC campaigns and sending out emails containing malware-laced email attachments, the attacks have been used to infiltrate and monitor the systems of victim organizations and individuals, leading to the compromise of at least 500,000 government and private sector companies in more than 150 countries since 2017.
Some of their mass email phishing campaigns took the form of purchasing orders, product inquiries, and even COVID-19 aid impersonating legitimate companies, with the operators leveraging Gammadyne Mailer and Turbo-Mailer to send out phishing emails.
The ultimate goal of the attacks, Group-IB noted, was to steal authentication data from browsers, email, and FTP clients from companies located in the US, the UK, Singapore, Japan, Nigeria, among others.