- High -end and luxury products are announced with great savings
- More than 4,000 false domains have been seen that are passed through large brands
- Victims are losing money without receiving their products
More than 4,000 false domains have been seen that are passed through popular brands in a scheme that pushes fraud addressed to Facebook users.
The campaign was discovered by Silent Push’s analysis of threats, in a trend, researchers are calling “ghostvendors”, who sees scam ads for false domains that are mainly made in the Facebook market when exploiting the lagoons of the target advertising policy, and the ads are eliminated from the target library advertising to the completion of the campaign to avoid the monitor The attackers to remain without coincidence.
The key to false ads are unrealistic prices designed to attract victims to think that they have found a bargain, for example, researchers saw a Milwaukee tool chest for $ 129.
The scam artists are attracting buyers through Facebook ads
Ads also instill a sense of urgency through the use of keywords such as ‘liquidation’, ‘sale of vacations’ or ‘excessive inventory’, applying pressure to buyers to act immediately.
The links in the ads lead to fraud sites that resemble their genuine counterparts through domain generation and template cloning algorithms, with the redirection also applied to attract victims to malicious sites.
Innumerable brands imitated in the more than 4,000 false domains, including retailers (Amazon, Costco, Argos), footwear (Birkestock, Crocs, Skechers) and gift sites (Bath & Body Works, Yankee Vela) have been observed.
Being that there have been so many attacks, the consequences can vary. Many victims have stolen their payment information without delivered goods or have experienced financial fraud. In addition, the threat seems to be on a global scale and is not restricted to a country or central region.
Silent Push says that threat actors have demonstrated a deep understanding of target advertising systems, which have been criticized for not maintaining an inactive fraud public file and for not allowing holistic monitoring without external scratch (prohibited).
Meanwhile, possible victims are advised (including virtually all online buyers) that warn the ads that seem too good to be true.
Users can also verify the authenticity of offers visiting websites directly. It is also recommended that online purchases be made with credit cards that come with additional protection, with directly not advisable bank transfers.
