A malicious campaign impersonating an American financial advisor has been spotted targeting hundreds of individuals in West Africa.
Recently discovered by cybersecurity experts domain toolsthe “pig slaughter” operation uses a complex network of social engineering techniques to trick victims.
Describe your activity in an advisory shared with Information securityDomainTools said most attacks from unnamed threat actors used professional network services such as LinkedIn to identify, research, and contact potential victims.
“In particular, the scammers associated with this campaign frequently use social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. Recommendation add.
DomainTools further explained that because of the complexity of manipulating targets when impersonating financial advisors, fraudulent websites associated with these manipulations should remain accessible for as long as possible. bottom.
“Thus, the choice of hosting provider is critical to the success of this scam,” the company wrote. “Many of these spoofed websites have live chat widgets that allow potential victims to immediately interact with the spoofed financial advisor.”
More generally, DomainTools CTO Sean McNee said: Information security This pig slaughter campaign is particularly sophisticated for a number of reasons, he emailed.
“[It] It’s remarkable for the sheer scale of disguised financial advisors and their audacity to create spoofed websites,” McNee said.
“From our research, this group of threat actors has a physical presence in West Africa, operates in conjunction with resellers of ‘bulletproof’ hosting, and campaigns are still ongoing, potentially costing millions of dollars. We believe that we are making a very large loss.”
The CTO also explained that companies that fear similar attacks should proactively develop strategies to prevent their employees from becoming victims.
“Investment firms and their financial advisors should be wary of fraudulent domains, but new investment clients should be aware of the identities of the advisors they work with to avoid falling victim to this compelling type of fraud. We need to check it carefully.”
Another Swine Slaughter Campaign Targets U.S. Victims investigated by the country’s Ministry of Justice in November 2022.
