[HN Gopher] Tracking Down the Bulgarian Marketplace Scams
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Tracking Down the Bulgarian Marketplace Scams
Author : syl5x
Score : 101 points
Date : 2024-12-20 12:59 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (sy1.sh)
(TXT) w3m dump (sy1.sh)
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| Good work!
|
| As noted, it probably won't change anything, but scammers are a
| _lot_ more sophisticated, these days, than they used to be.
| vintermann wrote:
| From the description, these are rent-a-scammers, who convince
| people that renting their all in one scam platform is a great
| deal. It probably isn't, or they'd be doing it themselves. It's
| a good deal if you place a premium on feeling clever from
| scamming people, and don't care about the risk of getting hit
| by the police, or by rival would-be scammers eager to show
| they're more tough criminals than you.
|
| It's the lifecycle of a scam. Once it really isn't worth the
| effort anymore, it gets packaged up and sold to stupid kids.
| dylan604 wrote:
| This isn't any different from those seminars that teach you
| how to make money in real estate, forex, or similar. All you
| have to do is buy their books and attend their seminars and
| they teach you how to host your own seminars.
| phoronixrly wrote:
| If only there were authorities that would take actions to track
| down these scammers with as much zeal as they track down
| pirates...
| honzabe wrote:
| That's bizarre - someone tried to scam me in a similar way
| literally a few minutes ago.
|
| I am selling something on a marketplace. Someone contacted me -
| they want to buy the thing I am selling. Do I still have it? I
| say yes. They say they are sending a GLS courier to collect the
| item. I figure they need the item fast - we are celebrating
| Christmas tomorrow. Why not.
|
| The "buyer" sends me a link to a service supposedly offered by
| GLS, where GLS works as an intermediary - they collected the
| money from the buyer; when they collect the item, they will pay
| me. This is happening in the Czech Republic, and services like
| that seem plausible here. I do not know every detail of every
| delivery service offered here. The page looks just like an
| ordinary GLS page. I am in a hurry. I do not pay that much
| attention. I pause and check only when redirected to my bank's
| authentication page (this is the phishing part, obviously). Turns
| out GLS offers no such service.
|
| I was closer to giving them what they wanted than I imagined
| possible. I was on autopilot until the last second. Not even my
| bank's login page surprised me that much - we have something
| called "bank identity" that lets you authenticate stuff by your
| bank ID. It is so convenient that I got used to it and I do it
| carelessly.
|
| >> I hate scammers
|
| Yes, me too.
| Gys wrote:
| I missed something: why do you as a seller have to enter your
| bankdetails?
| honzabe wrote:
| That is the thing - you don't.
|
| In Czechia, something called bank ID is commonly used to
| authenticate. The point is to verify it is you, for example
| when you sign a contract online, fill in tax returns
| online... stuff like that. The way it works is that you are
| on some site, you get redirected to your internet banking,
| you log in (that's what I meant by "bank details", I am sorry
| about expressing myself so clumsily), and your bank redirects
| you back to that site with confirmation that is you.
|
| Do I need to verify my identity when someone wants to send me
| money? Who knows. This is the part that made me check. But I
| was close to not checking simply because it is habitual, and
| you do stuff like that automatically.
|
| Nowadays, we are often dealing with systems we do not fully
| understand. You get redirected to some familiar login form,
| you log in, and you don't even pause. Well, at least I do it.
| I should be a lot more careful, apparently.
| XorNot wrote:
| Login page redirects have become a big user security hazard
| it would seem - and OAuth is basically the culprit.
| dylan604 wrote:
| The entire social engineering of sending everything off
| to 3rd party is something that really irks me. The touted
| convenience of faster to deploy updates by using 3rd
| party rather than depending on local version updates has
| never been enough for me. It also was the sugar pill for
| switching to rent seeking SaaS to gain traction.
|
| I don't want my web server dependent on anyone else's
| server/service being available or in any other way
| slowing down my user's experience.
|
| The only service that I have no local solution is payment
| processing.
| ustad wrote:
| Holy crap. What a terrible system and I hope my part of the
| world never implements such forms of tech.
| mcyukon wrote:
| Canada checking in. We have the same system for
| authenticating with government services.
| https://www.interac.ca/en/verification/personal/sign-into-
| go...
|
| I dislike this as well, as this is conditioning people to
| not second guess why a third party website is sending you
| to your bank to login. As well as scam websites I've come
| across that mirror the authentication process down to every
| step you would have when using it for legitimate purposes.
| Scam website>Scam Interact login parter>Scam web banking
| login> stolen bank credentials.
| lifestyleguru wrote:
| The problem is using bank account for anything else than
| managing and transferring money. Confirming identity is a
| "convenience" no one asked for. Government services have their
| own authentication. Bank shouldn't know where and when you are
| accessing any other services, they _will_ use it for profiling
| or could even escalate into some KYC enquiry. Government should
| know only your IBAN. Connecting these dots for various service
| providers will never work in your favor.
| cynicalsecurity wrote:
| Why am I not surprised that Russians are behind this scam?
| meiraleal wrote:
| > Why am I not surprised
|
| Because you are being racist?
| chasebank wrote:
| Russian is not a race.
| ponector wrote:
| Too much Russia Today? Racist sanctions against Russia?
|
| Russians are liers, thiefs and scammers. No surprise they are
| behind this.
| akaitea wrote:
| because their similarity in language with Bulgaria helps
| performing convincing scams
| paxys wrote:
| It's so easy to spot marketplace scams that I'm baffled people
| still fall for them.
|
| Are you going to show up with cash on my doorstep (or another
| agreed upon location)? If yes, we can continue talking. If not,
| you are blocked and reported. End of story.
| meiraleal wrote:
| > It's so easy to spot marketplace scams that I'm baffled
| people still fall for them.
|
| That's survival bias. There are some you can't spot.
| alangibson wrote:
| You missed their point. It's cash on the barrel head or
| counterparty is presumed to be a scammer. If you follow that
| rule you'll never be scammed.
| meiraleal wrote:
| > If you follow that rule you'll never be scammed.
|
| until you get robbed, kidnapped or forced to do a bank
| transfer.
| dylan604 wrote:
| you just named multiple things that are not a scam
| meiraleal wrote:
| How not? The robber never intended to finish the deal.
| ClassyJacket wrote:
| None of those things are a scam.
| yojo wrote:
| The article mentioned it was a listing specifically for a large
| item.
|
| I get why someone might not show up on my doorstep if they're
| buying a piano - they probably need to hire somebody and are
| themselves not going to contribute anything to the piano moving
| process.
|
| But fully agreed that once you're an inch off the "show up with
| money" path, everything is suspect.
| seb1204 wrote:
| This is how I do it as well, gumtree or marketplace. I Still
| have to deal with the spammers messages and reporting
| aorth wrote:
| Awesome work. Entertaining read. Mnogo pozdravi!
| RobinL wrote:
| I got several people wanting to send a courier last time I listed
| something on Facebook. Checking their pages, they were all from
| eastern Europe with no obvious connection to my city. Good to
| know the mechanics of the scam, I wondered what they were up to.
| Don't understand why Facebook couldn't have auto detected the
| messages though - seemed like a pretty major failure of
| marketplace that the majority of the messages I got were scams.
| hkdobrev wrote:
| I had a bunch of those whenever I tried to use OLX - both on OLX
| messages and Whatsapp as well. Bot prevention is 0. I know people
| who were successfully scammed as they think they are entering
| their card details to get money transferred by their card number.
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(page generated 2024-12-23 23:01 UTC)