74 cyber criminals nabbed in crackdown

Modus operandi of Nigerians has been detected in SA.

Since the FBI began tracking scammers, they’ve cost victims a total of R51 billion.

Seventy-four cyber criminals were arrested earlier this month, following a global e-mail scam crackdown in the US, Nigeria, Canada, Mauritius and Poland, with 30 of those apprehended coming from Nigeria.

Their modus operandi has also been detected in South Africa.

The US security service, FBI, said the cyber scammers had reportedly cost their victims a total of about $3.7 billion (R51 billion) since it had begun tracking it. But aside from the financial haul, what made the attacks stand out was how sophisticated they were.

These weren’t garden-variety phishing scams using say, a clichéd plea from some foreign member of royalty, or even a fake link asking users to verify an app account. Rather, these criminals managed to spoof the e-mail addresses of corporate CEOs.

Alison Treadaway, a director at security firm Striata, said these criminals would hack into an e-mail account, send a phishing e-mail from the legitimate e-mail account, and then intercept the replies. In this way, there was no way to determine from the e-mail itself that it is a scam, because the message information – the “from” address – would be legitimate.

“These scammers will have done their homework – they will know enough about you and your CEO to make the request sound legitimate,” says Treadaway. “They will also convey a sense of urgency prompting the victim to execute the request without thinking it through.”

Treadaway says these methods are already being used to target victims in South Africa.

“There have been scams involving an estate agent [intercepting e-mails about deposit payments] and a school accounts department [intercepting interactions about school fees],” she says. “In both cases, the fraudsters posed as the legitimate owner of the e-mail account with the objective of diverting money to bank accounts under their control.”

She adds that it’s imperative both individuals and local businesses stay up to date with e-mail scams. By communicating regularly, they can keep themselves and their staff up-todate, helping reduce the prospect of such an attack thriving. – ANA

These were not garden-variety scams using clichéd pleas.