Researchers on Friday uncovered what they claim may be one of the largest fraudulent online credit card schemes active today.
The bad actors duped payment providers to accept payments and then the scammers use fake credit card numbers purchased on the darkweb to receive fraudulent payments.
In a blog post, ReasonLabs researchers said this widespread global credit card scam has been operating since 2019 and has amassed tens of millions of dollars in fraud from the stolen credit card numbers of tens of thousands of individuals.
The researchers believe the threat group functions as a crime syndicate that originated in Russia. This ongoing scam tends to abuse several security brands to execute fraudulent credit card charges. The threat group built its infrastructure on top of AWS and uses GoDaddy to circulate hundreds of domains.
Here’s how it works: The syndicate operates a massive fake network of dating and adult websites with functional customer support capabilities. Once the sites are live, the scammers coerce payment providers and ultimately gain the ability to accept credit card payments. Once that happens, the threat actors search the darknet and acquire thousands of stolen credit cards and charge them to their fake website’s services.
“The size of the scam — in the tens of millions, coupled with the fact that it has been live for more than three years — is most…
