Probing the online phish market reveals thriving, profitable underworld

A new study has lifted the lid on the booming ecosystems of fake websites that underpin phishing scams, revealing a wide variety of prices and products from cheap knock-ups to bespoke fraud services offering concierge-level customer support. Infosec firm Clearsky surfed popular Russian and English-speaking underground boards …

[Redstone]

Judging by the pricing...

you would have thought legal devops would be more attractive to these guys - similar pay without the threat of prison time?

[iron]

Re: Judging by the pricing...

If they lived in the West maybe. What do dev jobs pay in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, China and similar places and how many of them are there?

[Zog_but_not_the_first]

If I were the criminal kind...

And thank the Lord I'm not Sir!

I'd put up a real site, selling some real stuff and harvest the details from that.

Or has that been done already?

[Solarflare]

Re: If I were the criminal kind...

Obligatory XKCD

[Ol'Peculier]

Other sources are also available...

What we're finding is a large number of fake ecommerce sites that are scraping content from websites, including ours, and passing them off as real.

Some of these sites "sell" our own brand products. We had a case this morning where we are out of stock in one size but a customer got in touch with us and said "Well, www.whatever-site-that-is-only-registered-for-a-year-and-has-an-odd-domain-name. has it for sale, how come you don't when you make it?"

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm waiting for a fake site selling fake sites..

There's no such thing as honour amongst thieves so surely I can't be the first with the idea of a fake site pretending to sell fake sites. I wonder who would report on that, though.

Also, I reckon these people can only take payment in bitcoins or something because I reckon the chances of being paid with a false credit card are rather close to 100%, in what you could call an own-goal :).

[TheElder]

Making plans

I am currently making plans with others to take down some of these. Just today I did some instruction with a very nice woman I will be working with. I will also be doing some official instruction regarding these serious problems.

One site in particular is trying to charge customs duties for packages full of air. It starts with a local phone call. It includes trapping the visitor on the site and then forcing an e-mail to get loose. Then the empty package is delivered for cash using a fake well marked vehicle. The e-mail then has further uses. Since this requires a physical appearance I would say the operator is pretty fucking stupid. I will have the call redirected by my partners. I will have the package delivered to me. Might get some nice Kung Fuk U practice.

The last few days I have been having a very good time shooting some people in the ass.

holes.