Greater than 2400 rip-off pages have been found focusing on Arabic-speaking job seekers in 13 international locations from January 2022 to January 2023.
The findings have been made public by Group-IB safety researchers in an advisory printed earlier in the present day. In it, danger safety analysts Sharef Hlal and Olga Ulchenko mentioned that companies primarily based in Egypt (48%), Saudi Arabia (23%) and Algeria (17%) have been essentially the most impersonated by scammers.
“This rip-off scheme targets greater than 40 well-known manufacturers from 13 international locations within the MEA area,” defined the technical write-up, including that 64% of rip-off pages found on this marketing campaign impersonated firms within the logistics sector, adopted by the meals and beverage sector (20%) and the petroleum trade (12%).
The malicious marketing campaign depends on an preliminary phishing try that leads victims to rip-off internet pages containing the same description concerning the pretend emptiness.
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“Ought to they click on on the ‘apply’ button contained on these rip-off internet pages, victims are redirected to phishing web sites that the scammers create to reap the credentials of victims’ social community accounts,” reads the advisory.
The scammers then entry victims’ accounts and replace the related password, e-mail handle and telephone quantity info, earlier than demanding cash from victims to retrieve them.
In keeping with the safety specialists, the rip-off marketing campaign peaked in exercise in August 2022, which noticed the creation of over 600 new pretend job pages.
Hlal and Ulchenko warned that almost all of the pretend social media pages are nonetheless on-line, with new ones being created each day.
“Combatting scams of this sort is significant, as firms whose manufacturers are appropriated by scammers can expertise reputational loss, as victims sooner or later might affiliate their detrimental experiences by the hands of the scammers with the focused manufacturers.”
The malicious marketing campaign found by Group-IB comes amid a rise in phishing makes an attempt focusing on cell gadgets.
