When you think of online black markets, you are probably going to think of places that sell weapons, narcotics as well as a wide range of illicit services. While these products and services are definitely popular on the dark web and its various criminal marketplaces, there is another commodity that has proven to be massively profitable in this regard. This commodity is the social media account or any other kind of online profile of someone or the other who might not even know that their account is for sale.
Now, it has been a trope for many years now that no one really knows who you are on the internet. During the early days of the creation of online profiles it was quite easy to make a fake account, and even massive social media platforms like Reddit actively facilitated the creation of fake accounts because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making their user numbers seem a lot higher than they actually were at that specific moment since boosting user statistics could help companies secure funding as well as beat out the competition in quite a few ways.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that a lot of the major social media platforms that started in the last decade or so such as Facebook and MySpace resulted in a bit of a shift here. Users were now being forced to use their real names in order to set up accounts on these platforms, and while certain users do manage to skirt the rules they often end up in situations where their accounts are banned or they end up being blocked in some other way, shape or form.
Still, the market that had been created for fake profiles and the like was not going to go anywhere, and this resulted in vast marketplaces being created for fake accounts. The truly sinister thing is that many of these accounts aren’t even fake but are rather accounts belonging to real people that have been compromised. Buyers can purchase the details of these accounts and use the profiles as they please which means that many if not most people that have some kind of an online profile need to be very careful as there is a high chance their account isn’t safe.
Sources: 1 / 2.
Read next: Cybercriminals are continuously changing their ways for attacks through a new phishing scam which is capable of bypassing old-style URL defense
Now, it has been a trope for many years now that no one really knows who you are on the internet. During the early days of the creation of online profiles it was quite easy to make a fake account, and even massive social media platforms like Reddit actively facilitated the creation of fake accounts because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making their user numbers seem a lot higher than they actually were at that specific moment since boosting user statistics could help companies secure funding as well as beat out the competition in quite a few ways.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that a lot of the major social media platforms that started in the last decade or so such as Facebook and MySpace resulted in a bit of a shift here. Users were now being forced to use their real names in order to set up accounts on these platforms, and while certain users do manage to skirt the rules they often end up in situations where their accounts are banned or they end up being blocked in some other way, shape or form.
Still, the market that had been created for fake profiles and the like was not going to go anywhere, and this resulted in vast marketplaces being created for fake accounts. The truly sinister thing is that many of these accounts aren’t even fake but are rather accounts belonging to real people that have been compromised. Buyers can purchase the details of these accounts and use the profiles as they please which means that many if not most people that have some kind of an online profile need to be very careful as there is a high chance their account isn’t safe.
Sources: 1 / 2.
Read next: Cybercriminals are continuously changing their ways for attacks through a new phishing scam which is capable of bypassing old-style URL defense
