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Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

itnews.com.au

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Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#91

Post by itake »

makeitdouble wrote: post #26
itake wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally like the idea that my bank account has a completely different email and password then any other account. In theory, criminals don't know where to even try to exploit/phish.

Yes. BTW I still do that, but with a single address, username+myonlinebank@domain.com style. It was easier when I need to give them my email again on the phone or in other circumstances, they can see it's just the same with extra bits.

My issue is if username+ecommercewebsite@domain.com leaks my account login: username@domain.com as the + is a known feature. If they are able to access username@domain.com, then they would be able to access password recovery for my bank.

With a separate finance account, even if they figured out how to access my primary personal email. There is still an air gap with my financial accounts.

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#92

Post by swores »

jll29 wrote: post #87
oliwarner wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminded me of something Jean-Claude Juncker once said about democracy in the EU: > We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it. Being a step removed from local politics means they can do stuff without the immediate fear they're all kicked out, but the other downside of people not really caring who they elect is it's relatively easy to be elected on a "We hate the EU" lin…

I love the EU. There just isn't a better place to live (having lived in other places like the UK, US and CH, and visited many countries). For example, when I meet European researchers, each has some things to bitch about their own governments, but we all agree the unity of the EU is very valuable, and that we are very grateful for what it has given us (democratic stability, freedom of movement, a vision for living to…

Be careful not to take it too much for granted (I'm not saying you are) - plenty of us in the UK felt how you feel, too! Just not quite enough of us, sadly.

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#93

Post by koliber »

sfdlkj3jk342a wrote: post #72
koliber wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When your mom or grandma gets swindled out of her retirement, this will start making sense.

The only real solution to these problems is to convert the accounts of the elderly or anyone who can't be trusted to spot scammers into joint accounts with restrictions on large transactions controlled by a trusted family member or nominee.

What if your son suddenly decided to do this to your accounts? How well would you take it?

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#94

Post by 1oooqooq »

koliber wrote: post #16
1oooqooq wrote: post #13

why are taxes being used to moderate Facebook?

When your mom or grandma gets swindled out of her retirement, this will start making sense.

so, punish facebook. don't use my taxes to persecute criminally someone using the badly designed system.

they would have close banks or newspapers for much less.

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#95

Post by Saris »

jcynix wrote: post #46
dewey wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, same feeling here. I did that for a while but in the end I maybe went ahead and blocked one address in over 10 years of doing that. It was more of a hassle than it was worth, especially if you want to do password resets and you have to dig up that email again vs. just typing your default one.

What hassle? With a bit of organization there's no real hassle. My addresses are all in /etc/aliases on the mail server and have a time stamped comment in front of them naming the company / website. I can easily take this "db" with me on my smartphone. Or could make it available with a simple interface. As we use Joplin already to share data between family members, that's the place the list of addresses lives for loo…

Enable catchall and you don't need to do all of that work.

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#96

Post by jcynix »

Saris wrote: post #95
jcynix wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What hassle? With a bit of organization there's no real hassle. My addresses are all in /etc/aliases on the mail server and have a time stamped comment in front of them naming the company / website. I can easily take this "db" with me on my smartphone. Or could make it available with a simple interface. As we use Joplin already to share data between family members, that's the place the list of addresses lives for loo…

Enable catchall and you don't need to do all of that work.

It's not "much work" it's a script. That was a tiny bit of work but that's a long, long time ago :-)

As for "catch all" that makes addresses available which are otherwise not available and get rejected.

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#97

Post by sfdlkj3jk342a »

koliber wrote: post #93
sfdlkj3jk342a wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only real solution to these problems is to convert the accounts of the elderly or anyone who can't be trusted to spot scammers into joint accounts with restrictions on large transactions controlled by a trusted family member or nominee.

What if your son suddenly decided to do this to your accounts? How well would you take it?

Well ideally everyone should have contingency plans in place before he experiences severe cognitive decline.

A unilateral takeover of your accounts by your son should only happen if there is a sudden incapacitation and with some kind of medical-backed court approval.

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#98

Post by sfdlkj3jk342a »

codedokode wrote: post #78
sfdlkj3jk342a wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only real solution to these problems is to convert the accounts of the elderly or anyone who can't be trusted to spot scammers into joint accounts with restrictions on large transactions controlled by a trusted family member or nominee.

Other solution would be to restrict international calls though.

There are plenty of services that sell US-hosted SIMs (or for most major countries) that are capable of SMS and calls without any KYC.

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#99

Post by immibis »

jpalawaga wrote: post #57
sva_ wrote: post #25

> In the raid, authorities seized 1200 SIM boxes, with the devices containing 40,000 active SIM cards Realistically, wouldn't that look suspicious to a cell tower if 40k sims log in from one location?

Depends. They found one of these in New York but it’s very easy for 10s of thousands onto gather in a relatively small area. For example, New Year’s Eve, sports/concert at msg, regular foot traffic at Times Square, etc. so I think barring even antennas shenanigans, disguising it could be not impossible. (I also understand they rarely use all active SIMs at the same time but instead rotate through in order to avoid ar…

> but instead rotate through in order to avoid arousing suspicion

Also to use fewer resources! Compared to the SIM cards, the radio/modems are expensive. It's cheaper to reuse one radio/modem cycling through different SIM cards for just long enough to receive pending SMSes. But not too many, or you increase latency. It's probably more suspicious to have the same modems cycling through SIM cards than to have all of them always connected.

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