Researchers at EclecticIQ warn that the financially motivated Chinese threat actor “SilkSpecter” has launched a phishing campaign targeting Black Friday shoppers across Europe and the US.
The crooks are offering fake discounted products to trick users into handing over their personal and financial information.
“Threat actor SilkSpecter targeted victims' Cardholder Data (CHD) by leveraging the legitimate payment processor Stripe,” the researchers write.
“This tactic allowed genuine transactions to be completed while covertly exfiltrating sensitive CHD to a server controlled by the attackers. SilkSpecter enhanced the phishing site’s credibility by using Google Translate to dynamically adjust the website's language based on each victim’s IP location, making it appear more convincing to an international audience.”
The phishing sites are also designed to collect users’ phone numbers, which may be used to launch additional social engineering attacks.
“Victims were also prompted to enter their phone numbers before completing their purchases,” the researchers write. “EclecticIQ analysts assess with medium confidence that this information could likely be leveraged in a second stage of the attack if SilkSpecter chooses to exploit the compromised credit or debit card details for financial fraud.
The phone numbers could enable attackers to conduct vishing (voice phishing) or smishing (SMS phishing) attacks, deceiving victims into providing additional sensitive information, such as 2FA codes, personal identification details, or even account credentials.”
The threat actor is likely directing users to the phishing sites via social media links and search engine optimization (SEO) poisoning.
These types of scams can be expected to continue throughout the holiday season. New-school security awareness training can give your organization an essential layer of defense against social engineering attacks. KnowBe4 empowers your workforce to make smarter security decisions every day. Over 70,000 organizations worldwide trust the KnowBe4 platform to strengthen their security culture and reduce human risk.
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