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U.S. sanctions cloud provider 'Funnull' as top source of 'pig butchering' scams

krebsonsecurity.com

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Re: U.S. sanctions cloud provider 'Funnull' as top source of 'pig butchering' scams

#141

Post by exFAT »

eugene3306 wrote: post #124
naet wrote: post #25

Cryptocurrency enables a big part of this. Not saying that there weren't any wire scams before crypto, but crypto has made it much easier for average people to make anonymous international money transfers that can't be reversed. Not to start a big argument, but to my eyes the main usecases of cryptocurrency are to bet on them as a speculative asset or to use them for various forms of crime. Someone will probably tell…

I use crypto often. I am Russian, I left Russia when Putin started the war. For me, it is quite hard to open a bank account. So I use crypto. I work remotely for a Singaporian company. Now I'm in Vietnam, I can pay for my groceries with crypto using QR code. I can cash USDT crypto with a rate better than paper bills. I have two bank accounts in Kazakhstan. Both card credentials were stolen after I used a popular hote…

>Now I'm in Vietnam, I can pay for my groceries with crypto using QR code.

That sounds great. What do you use?

Re: U.S. sanctions cloud provider 'Funnull' as top source of 'pig butchering' scams

#142

Post by johngladtj »

porridgeraisin wrote: post #51
tbrownaw wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> main usecases of cryptocurrency are to bet on them as a speculative asset or to use them for various forms of crime. Someone will probably tell me about some theoretical situation where it is a positive force When you don't agree with the laws that are being broken in a particular case.

So if 57% in a country agree with a law, the remaining 43% should be allowed to circumvent that law through these means? Of course, the opposite argument is "what about north korea", but it's a package deal is my point.

Generally speaking you shouldn't be able to impose your will on others

Re: U.S. sanctions cloud provider 'Funnull' as top source of 'pig butchering' scams

#143

Post by fennecfoxy »

ksenzee wrote: post #70

I wonder what kind of scam my generation will be falling for when we get old. At least I have smart, trustworthy kids. If I didn’t, I’d be making smart, trustworthy young friends, and soon.

As a millennial, probably the exact same stuff. I see my friends, especially the genz ones, addicted to cracktok. And ofc cracktok advertises endless cheap crap for them to buy, by dropshippers with huge margins, or Chinese sellers who have realised why bother with a Western middleman when you can up your factory price to dropship retail & make the most money.

Plus with advancements in AI, people are gonna have to finally get pretty good at seeing anything and thinking "I don't know if this is real, I should fact check it" but I personally think that'll never happen, people will continue to go on believing whatever they see as evidenced by YT/TT comments that I've seen on obviously fake or scripted videos.

Re: U.S. sanctions cloud provider 'Funnull' as top source of 'pig butchering' scams

#144

Post by barbazoo »

dmix wrote: post #107
aziaziazi wrote: post #76

Related: Interpol urges to stop using "Pig Butchering": > INTERPOL argues that the term ‘pig butchering’ dehumanizes and shames victims of such frauds, deterring people from coming forward to seek help and provide information to the authorities. "Romance baiting" is proposed instead. https://www.interpol.int/News-and-Events/News/2024/INTERPOL-...

Spending their time wisely I see.

If it increases the number of people coming forward then why not. It’s not that this is was the only thing Interpol was doing.

Re: U.S. sanctions cloud provider 'Funnull' as top source of 'pig butchering' scams

#145

Post by BLKNSLVR »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #133
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Telcos have systems in place that are specifically to allow international phone calls to appear as if they're local calls. This is to "facilitate business". They have these services and continue to offer them because they get paid for having them, despite the double decker bus sized hole this provides for scammers. I agree 100% that there should be much tighter regulation on telcos. What I'm not sure of is actually w…

Phone numbers should just be deprecated and move towards a DNS like system.

The older I get the more I realise how much of an anchor legacy systems are, so the more I appreciate forward planning in many contexts.

I like to do things in a modular fashion; sectioning off related parts.

Re: U.S. sanctions cloud provider 'Funnull' as top source of 'pig butchering' scams

#146

Post by latchkey »

fennecfoxy wrote: post #134
naet wrote: post #25

Cryptocurrency enables a big part of this. Not saying that there weren't any wire scams before crypto, but crypto has made it much easier for average people to make anonymous international money transfers that can't be reversed. Not to start a big argument, but to my eyes the main usecases of cryptocurrency are to bet on them as a speculative asset or to use them for various forms of crime. Someone will probably tell…

Totally agree, I think crypto is cool from a technological standpoint, but I don't think I've seen one common genuine use of BTC, etc. And before someone comes in with very specific, anecdotal examples - notice I said "common", ie not buying your indie music from a retro-Serb band that plays using the concept of instruments as instruments and from abandoned sewers; but only on Mondays. I definitely feel like the majo…

> I've seen one common genuine use of BTC

One of my favorited comments/threads:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26238410

Re: U.S. sanctions cloud provider 'Funnull' as top source of 'pig butchering' scams

#147

Post by naming_the_user »

porridgeraisin wrote: post #51
tbrownaw wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> main usecases of cryptocurrency are to bet on them as a speculative asset or to use them for various forms of crime. Someone will probably tell me about some theoretical situation where it is a positive force When you don't agree with the laws that are being broken in a particular case.

So if 57% in a country agree with a law, the remaining 43% should be allowed to circumvent that law through these means? Of course, the opposite argument is "what about north korea", but it's a package deal is my point.

Pretty much, yeah.

If almost half of the population disagree with something then it’s probably a stupid restriction to begin with.

Re: U.S. sanctions cloud provider 'Funnull' as top source of 'pig butchering' scams

#148

Post by latchkey »

kalaksi wrote: post #58
naet wrote: post #25

Cryptocurrency enables a big part of this. Not saying that there weren't any wire scams before crypto, but crypto has made it much easier for average people to make anonymous international money transfers that can't be reversed. Not to start a big argument, but to my eyes the main usecases of cryptocurrency are to bet on them as a speculative asset or to use them for various forms of crime. Someone will probably tell…

The banks here have said that if you get scammed and money has been transferred (no cryptocurrency involved), there's nothing they can do. It was a bit surprising to hear since you only hear cryptocurrency transactions being irreversible.

The (dumbass) finance department in my last company was phished out of about $50k. They received an email "from another company", that we happened to do business with, that was asking to update the account information. The FD didn't do any verification cause it was over a weekend and it was 'urgent'. Basically ignored all the classic signals.

The bank refused to return the funds. The concept that just because it is a bank and it must be irreversible, is totally wrong. Another very good example of this is the whole corrupt Zelle service.

Re: U.S. sanctions cloud provider 'Funnull' as top source of 'pig butchering' scams

#149

Post by nottorp »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #139

I kind of wonder why ISPs haven't already started offering value-add security services that have various levels of filtering to provide a cleaner-feed internet experience. From my limited research there seem to be a surprisingly large number of bad actors that own moderate swathes of ip address ranges and even Autonomous Systems (AS) that are known and can therefore be blocked. I use OPNSense, which seems to allow AS…

Sounds like begging for censorship…

Re: U.S. sanctions cloud provider 'Funnull' as top source of 'pig butchering' scams

#150

Post by whimsicalism »

dantillberg wrote: post #54
whimsicalism wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i bet heavily using crypto against AI progress on coding to hedge my career

How is crypto relevant to betting?

because it gives you access to binary options markets with deep liquidity that you can’t get access to in any other way. i guess it counts under various forms of crime because we criminalize offering useful financial instruments
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