Security News
The Australian Federal Police have announced today that a 24-year-old woman from Melbourne, arrested in 2019 for her role in large-scale, cyber-enabled identity theft crimes, was sentenced to five years and six months in prison. According to the AFT, she was part of an international crime syndicate engaged in "Large-scale and sophisticated cybercrimes," stealing at least $3.3 million and laundering another $2.5 million.
Eight braggadocious social media influencers fond of posing next to sportscars are facing charges from the US Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice, who claim they manipulated their 1.5 million followers in order to help themselves to $100 million in "Fraudulent profits." The suspects, all men in their twenties and thirties, were charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud in connection with a long-running, social media-based "Pump and dump" scheme, a recently unsealed Texas federal grand jury indictment [PDF] and an SEC complaint [PDF] revealed.
While the world slides into a recession, the resulting increased debt, supply chain delays, and inflation create increased pressure on individuals to make ends meet. In this Help Net Security video, Ari Jacoby, CEO at Deduce, discusses how cybercriminals see times of downturn as an opening to exploit potential vulnerabilities.
Since the early stages of the pandemic, account takeover fraud has significantly transformed, quickly becoming one of the fastest-growing cybersecurity threats with 22% of adults in the US falling victim to this attack. With new user fraud, synthetic ID, IRSF and promo abuse increasing rapidly, the new avenues for account takeover have turned this scheme into a beast that feels unstoppable.
E-commerce fraud is expected to cost merchants in excess of US$48 billion globally in 2023, up from over $41 billion in 2022 according to Juniper Research. It predicted that this growth will be accelerated by increasing use of alternative payment methods, such as digital wallets and BNPL, which are creating new fraud risks.
Ukraine's cyber police and Europol have identified and arrested five key members of an international investment fraud ring estimated to have caused losses of over €200 million per year. The operation of the investment scheme was spread across multiple European countries, including Ukraine, Germany, Spain, Latvia, Finland, and Albania.
Wells Fargo customers who use Zelle to send and request payments suffer more than twice the rate of fraud and other online scams as people using other big banks, according to US Senator Elizabeth Warren. Warren chastised both financial firms in letters to their CEOs this week: she said Wells Fargo had sent her an "Evasive and misleading reply," and Zelle parent company Early Warning Services had made "Inaccurate" claims, in response to an investigation she led into banking fraud that stems from Zelle's payment system.
An Instagram influencer known as 'Hushpuppi' has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for conspiring to launder tens of millions of USD from business email compromise scams and various cyber schemes. The 40-year-old Nigerian's real name is Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, and was ordered to pay restitution of $1,732,841 to two confirmed victims, a law firm in the U.S. and a businessperson in Qatar.
A one-time Apple employee working as a buyer within the iGiant's supply chain department has pleaded guilty to mail and wire fraud charges spanning multiple years, ultimately costing the company $17 million. According to the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California, Prasad admitted in a written statement that he began to defraud Apple as early as 2011 by "Accepting kickbacks, inflating invoices, stealing parts, and causing Apple to pay for items and services never received."
Interpol arrested 75 suspected members of the Black Axe West African crime syndicate, and intercepted over $1 million in various bank accounts as part of a wide-ranging multi-country operation aimed at thwarting the group's cyber-fraud efforts that fund its criminal operations. According to the international police agency, Operation Jackal spanned 14 countries on four continents targeting Black Axe and related crime groups in the region.