Fergie's Tech Blog

Caveat Emptor: Watch Out for Phantom Stores

Brian Krebs writes on Security Fix:

Most people are proud to say they would never fall for a phishing scam, that they would never give their personal and financial information away at fake banking sites, just because someone asked them to in an e-mail. But how many people will use that same common sense when a too-good-to-be-true bargain presents itself at a no-name online electronics shop?

A slew of fake electronics sites, some of them apparently being promoted by major online search engines and comparison-shopping sites, have been swindling consumers out of cash and credit card numbers for several weeks. The Web sites are confusingly named after legitimate electronics and clothing shops in the United States. All say they accept major credit cards and PayPal, and some carry seals boasting that they are "hacker safe."

But customers who order something from these sites soon find their accounts charged increasing amounts for unauthorized transactions.

More here.

Note: For what it's worth, Paradius has long been known to be a source of various forms of cyber crime, and has also been known to host activities of Eastern European cyber criminals formerly affiliated with the notorious Russian Business Network. - ferg

posted by Fergie @ 1/07/2009 05:31:00 PM