Russian scammers have been a thorn in people’s sides for years now. Arguably the most successful group of malicious actors hailing from Russia is the one that has launched the Classiscam campaign. They impersonate legitimate businesses because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making their phishing campaigns more effective, and they have defrauded consumers of $65 million all around the world.
This information comes out of Group-IB, and it revealed that around 400 subgroups are involved in the matter at hand. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that there are hundreds of other groups out there, around 1,366 in total. The 400 analyzed by Group-IB only represent the ones that they were able to collect data for through their telegram channels.
There are around 38,000 scammers active within these groups, which has allowed them to spread far and wide with all things having been considered and taken into account. One thing that bears mentioning is that Classiscam has grown a lot in recent years, beginning in 2019. They used to trick users into purchasing fake goods from them by putting up ads on social media, and it appears that their methods have only grown more sophisticated.
Furthermore, the barrier for entry has decreased tremendously due to the presence of automation thanks to AI. Anyone can join this group of scammers now, posing as either a buyer or a seller, and this is part of a wider AI push in the community of cybercriminals that are responsible for these security and privacy violations.
Creating a phishing scam now only takes a few seconds to accomplish. There is a whole host of chatbots on Telegram that can make it easier than might have been the case otherwise. In spite of the fact that this is the case, there is still no telling when this group will be brought down. It will be interesting to see what efforts are made in terms of preventing the group from causing further harm in the future.
Read next: AI Chatbots Might Be a Security Risk for Business Operations, Here’s Why
This information comes out of Group-IB, and it revealed that around 400 subgroups are involved in the matter at hand. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that there are hundreds of other groups out there, around 1,366 in total. The 400 analyzed by Group-IB only represent the ones that they were able to collect data for through their telegram channels.
There are around 38,000 scammers active within these groups, which has allowed them to spread far and wide with all things having been considered and taken into account. One thing that bears mentioning is that Classiscam has grown a lot in recent years, beginning in 2019. They used to trick users into purchasing fake goods from them by putting up ads on social media, and it appears that their methods have only grown more sophisticated.
Furthermore, the barrier for entry has decreased tremendously due to the presence of automation thanks to AI. Anyone can join this group of scammers now, posing as either a buyer or a seller, and this is part of a wider AI push in the community of cybercriminals that are responsible for these security and privacy violations.
Creating a phishing scam now only takes a few seconds to accomplish. There is a whole host of chatbots on Telegram that can make it easier than might have been the case otherwise. In spite of the fact that this is the case, there is still no telling when this group will be brought down. It will be interesting to see what efforts are made in terms of preventing the group from causing further harm in the future.
Read next: AI Chatbots Might Be a Security Risk for Business Operations, Here’s Why
