[HN Gopher] Phishing sites targeting scammers and thieves
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Phishing sites targeting scammers and thieves
        
       Author : todsacerdoti
       Score  : 52 points
       Date   : 2021-08-09 15:32 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (krebsonsecurity.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (krebsonsecurity.com)
        
       | 0xbadcafebee wrote:
       | This reminds me of my friends that used to take over botnets and
       | turn them on the C&C servers of other botnets. One guy tried to
       | pay in bitcoin to get his botnet back. That would have been a
       | couple million dollars worth these days... :-/
        
         | unstatusthequo wrote:
         | And unfortunately "hacking back" is still hacking according to
         | the laws of the U.S. currently. Which might explain why cyber
         | crime is way up. No downside for threat actors.
        
           | wmf wrote:
           | I think there have been a few exceptions where US authorities
           | have authorized "technical action" against botnets and such.
        
             | mrkramer wrote:
             | Unauthorized computer access in still unauthorized doesn't
             | matter if you hack back and take over a botnet from cyber-
             | criminals.
             | 
             | Yea there are exceptions where US authorities together with
             | Microsoft sinkhole, takeover and shut down botnets. Why
             | Microsoft? Because majority of botnets are botnets of
             | compromised Windows computers.
        
           | r00fus wrote:
           | So do we need some "privateers" or would that be too
           | dangerous?
        
             | Y_Y wrote:
             | Just live in Tunisia or Barbados like a real pirate.
        
         | gricardo99 wrote:
         | sounds fascinating, and fraught with peril. I'd be worried that
         | either I'd make myself a target for these hackers/scammers, or
         | law enforcement. Granted most of the hackers/scammers probably
         | aren't very skilled, but if you crossed one that really knew
         | what they were doing... yikes! I'd also be worried the FBI
         | would eventually come knocking. I'm not so sure the FBI would
         | distinguish between someone "liberating" a botnet and turning
         | it against the original hacker, and the hackers/scammers
         | themselves.
        
       | mrkramer wrote:
       | These are called honeypots.
        
       | logshipper wrote:
       | > DomainTools' record for briansclub[.]com says the domain was
       | abandoned or dormant for a period in 2019, only to be scooped up
       | again by someone in May 2020 when it became a phishing site
       | spoofing the real BriansClub.
       | 
       | Reminded me of the recent AskHN thread on the profitability of
       | domain squatting: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28106113
       | 
       | I wonder if we'll see more of such criminal-scamming operations
       | after the government sting operation that leveraged a compromised
       | app: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/06/08/fbi-app-
       | arre...
        
       | j_walter wrote:
       | Good! If people are too stupid to realize a scam like this or pay
       | for something illegal then they deserve to get bilked for a few
       | hundred bucks.
        
         | burnished wrote:
         | I just want to contest the "too stupid to realize a scam" bit,
         | in part because of the idea that stupid people are deserving of
         | mistreatment (they aren't), but mostly because stupidity has
         | very little to do with it. Vulnerability has a lot to do with.
         | Most of the time, most people aren't vulnerable to scams. Thats
         | the trick though, a successful scam is about finding people who
         | are temporarily vulnerable. And everyone is at some point in
         | their lives.
        
           | mannerheim wrote:
           | I'd agree, but the victims in this case seem to be buying
           | stolen credit cards. They fully deserve to get ripped off in
           | this case, it's instant karma.
           | 
           | Also the perfect victims - what are they going to do,
           | complain to the police that their stolen credit card vendor
           | ripped them off?
        
         | lalaland1125 wrote:
         | Most scam victims are elderly with cognitive problems.
         | Eventually you too will probably be "too stupid to realize a
         | scam like this".
         | 
         | Assuming you live long enough of course.
        
           | ectopod wrote:
           | This is a scam against people who are actively seeking out
           | stolen credit card details. Which doesn't seem like something
           | an elderly person would start doing as as a result of
           | cognitive decline.
        
             | dylan604 wrote:
             | unless its an older credit card scammer trying to offset
             | their social security fixed income with something they used
             | to do back in the day
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-08-09 23:01 UTC)