AS PEOPLE GROW MORE CAUTIOUS AND CYBERAWARE, SCAMMERS ARE UPPING THEIR GAME BY CRAFTING INCREASINGLY COMPLEX AND CONVINCING SCHEMES.
INDUSTRY WATCH
Gone are the days when a suspicious email, SMS, or basic phishing link could easily fool users. As people grow more cautious and cyberaware, scammers are upping their game by crafting increasingly complex and convincing schemes to bypass skepticism and lure victims into handing over sensitive information, especially credit card data.
Key Findings
• Incredibly convincing websites, selling everything from shoes and clothes to diverse electronics, are tricking people into paying monthly subscriptions and willingly giving away credit card data.
• Many of the websites are linked to a single address in Cyprus, likely home to an offshore company.
• The scam encompassed more than 200 different websites, including many that are still up and running.
• Criminals create Facebook pages and take out full ads to promote the already classic Mystery Box scam and other variants.
• The Mystery Box scam has evolved and now includes almost hidden recurring payments, alongside links to websites to various shops.
• Facebook is used as the main platform for these new and enhanced mystery box scams.
• Content creators are also being impersonated to promote mystery boxes or fraudsters create new pages that look a lot like the originals.
Scammers try to take advantage of people’ s lack of attention
Scammers know that if a victim has reached the payment step, they’ re already convinced the scam is real. At that point, hesitation is low and critical thinking is off. That’ s when scammers strike again, slipping in a second scam right before the victim hands over the money. It’ s not just about closing the deal at that point, but rather about stacking the fraud.
What is a Mystery Box scam?
In real life, the allure of a mysterious box of items on a shelf just waiting for someone to pick it up for a few bucks seems like a scam that would never work. But on the Internet, it really does work – otherwise scammers wouldn’ t put so much effort into promoting it.
There are quite a few variations of these scams, from boxes left at the post office, to bags left at the airport and even to clearance sales from large shopping centres. They all share the same tell-tale sign: all the victim has to do is pay a minimal sum of money.
AS PEOPLE GROW MORE CAUTIOUS AND CYBERAWARE, SCAMMERS ARE UPPING THEIR GAME BY CRAFTING INCREASINGLY COMPLEX AND CONVINCING SCHEMES.
The goal, of course, is to collect personal and financial information. Victims willingly provide all that precious information, believing they’ ve made a fantastic purchase.
The Mystery Box scam is evolving
Like most scams, these fraudulent schemes lower their allure as people get used to them and fewer people fall victim. This drives criminals to devise new ways to obtain money or financial information.
The first step in the evolutionary ladder was the moment scammers added surveys‘ to ensure you’ re a real person and not a bot’. When users see a company taking such steps, it makes the enterprise look more legitimate.
Now, the Mystery Box scam has evolved in a new way. Right before you agree to give them money and financial information, you also agree to a subscription model( written in a tiny font) that turns your current mystery shopping adventure into recurring payments.
The Mystery Box scam is expanding into new territories
Some ads with mystery boxes point to various online shops for a variety of products, such as clothes, electronic equipment and beauty products. At one point, we identified around 140 websites that shared the same business model. This is just one example:
“ Buy at member price and get FREE access to the best prices in Europe with an account top-up of 44.00 EUR / every 14 days. Skip or shop the top-up,” read the fine print.
The online shop appears to offer many tiers with all kinds of perks. By following the URLs related by tracker
www. intelligentcio. com INTELLIGENTCIO EUROPE 67