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CyberInt Research Finds 150% Growth in Account Takeover Chatter & 200% Increase in Refund Fraud During Black Friday & Cyber Monday
November 2018 by CyberInt Research
Threat actor “chatter” indicated a 200% increase in refund fraud-related activities, including a 150% increase in discussion of compromised accounts and 90% about eGift cards. Chatter about attack tools – mainly credential stuffing tools – had a 20% increase.
Cyberthreat indicators averaged 30% higher than usual threat traffic over the five days; based on the volume of shopping, this was lower than expected.
Phishing and unofficial marketplaces on the deep web, Darknet, and the less open web had their own Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, creating hundreds of new domains to swindle holiday shoppers. Meanwhile, hacking forums had their own sales and discussions about the types of threats they were instigating and offering.
Refund scams and fraudulent gift cards have been increasing against individual retailers; investigations are still ongoing. Gift card samples have been purchased so the retailers and fraud managers can verify and investigate the criminals.
Retailers also faced quite a few brute force attacks; most have been able to block them, but it required allocation of IT resources that were needed to meet online shopping demand. Issues like this as well as the high volume in legitimate traffic created unhappy customers. Some retailers faced as much as a 300% increase of negative content on social media from their own customers.
General holiday-related cybercrime is expected to increase until December 25 – and then we can look forward to an even greater increase in refund fraud.
CyberInt cyber experts supported clients during such peak holidays with onsite analysts, 24/7 support, cyber activity investigation, and mitigation activities.
Happy Holidays! Stay scam safe!
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