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Phishing sites targeting scammers and thieves

krebsonsecurity.com

1–10 of 19 posts

Re: Phishing sites targeting scammers and thieves

#4

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... :-/

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.

Re: Phishing sites targeting scammers and thieves

#5
post #2

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.

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.

Re: Phishing sites targeting scammers and thieves

#6
post #2

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.

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.

Re: Phishing sites targeting scammers and thieves

#7
post #2

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.

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.

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.

Re: Phishing sites targeting scammers and thieves

#8
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

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

Re: Phishing sites targeting scammers and thieves

#9

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... :-/

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.

Re: Phishing sites targeting scammers and thieves

#10

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... :-/

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.

So do we need some "privateers" or would that be too dangerous?
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