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Andreas Zingerle - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Revealing Passwords: Using Social Engineering Methods to Monitor Scammer Email Communication
Advances in Media Entertainment and the Arts, 2020Co-Authors: Andreas ZingerleAbstract:This chapter addresses three social engineering techniques that digilante online communities of scambaiters use for ‘Inbox diving': an act of gaining access to Internet Scammers email accounts. The methods have been gathered by analyzing scambaiting forums and were put on the test in direct email exchange between the author and Internet Scammers. By diving into the Scammers' inboxes, their working methods can be observed, gang structures investigated and potential victims warned. The author discusses the moral issues an ‘Inbox diver' faces and questions the ethics of scambaiting communities that prefer social engineering techniques rather than hacking email accounts. The research lead into the creation of the artistic installation ‘Password: ******' and the data sculpture ‘Monitoring Harry Brooks' and presents two artistic positions dealing with password security and data visualization.
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The ArT of Trickery: MeThods To esTAblish firsT conTAcT in inTerneT scAMs
2020Co-Authors: Andreas ZingerleAbstract:Internet Scammers use fictional narratives to gain the trust of potential victims. These narratives are often pre-scripted, get send out by individual Scammers or scam-groups and are often copied and reused by other scam-gangs. Vigilante online communities of scam baiters try to jam the practices of these Internet Scammers by using similar social engineering techniques to hook the Scammers into a story and consequently interrupt their workflow. In this paper, through examples, I want to take a closer look at the Scammers working methods and focus on two different strategies on how scambaiters use to approach Scammers.
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Internet Crime and Anti-Fraud Activism: A Hands-On Approach
Security and Privacy Management Techniques and Protocols, 2020Co-Authors: Andreas Zingerle, Linda KronmanAbstract:Scambaiting is a form of vigilantism that targets internet Scammers who try to trick people into advance fee payments. In the past, victims were mainly contacted by bulk emails; now the widespread use of social networking services has made it easier for Scammers to contact potential victims – those who seek various online opportunities in the form of sales and rentals, dating, booking holidays, or seeking for jobs. Scambaiters are online information communities specializing in identifying, documenting, and reporting activities of Scammers. By following scambaiting forums, it was possible to categorize different scambaiting subgroups with various strategies and tools. These were tested in hands-on sessions during creative workshops in order to gain a wider understanding of the scope of existing internet scams as well as exploring counter strategies to prevent internet crime. The aim of the workshops was to recognize and develop diverse forms of anti-scam activism.
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'Let's Talk Business': Narratives Used in Email and Phone Scams
2020Co-Authors: Andreas ZingerleAbstract:16th century ‘face to face’ persuasion scams adopted to letters, telephone, fax and Internet with the development of new communication technologies. In many of today’s fraud schemes phone numbers play an important role. Various free-to-use on-line tools enable the Scammers to hide their identities with fake names, bogus business websites, and VoIP services. These fake businesses or personas can appear more legitimate when connected to a phone number, enabling a faster, more personal contact to the victims. With the typology of a sample probe of 374 emails, commonly used in business proposal scams, the emails were categorized and tested to see how believable the proposals sound once the Scammers were contacted by phone. The research can be explored in a 5-channel interactive audio installation called ‘Let’s talk business’ that uncovers which business proposals and scam schemes are commonly used, and how believable the proposals sound once the Scammers are called.
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ICIDS - Remain Anonymous, Create Characters and Backup Stories: Online Tools Used in Internet Crime Narratives
Interactive Storytelling, 2014Co-Authors: Andreas ZingerleAbstract:This research takes a closer look at online tools that anti-scam activists use when in contact with Internet Scammers. These tools are used for defining one’s online character, for progressing the narrative or maintaining anonymity while uncovering the Scammer’s identity. The tools are easy to use and, when combined together, they offer powerful methods to narrate stories online. This research draws mostly upon primary sources, like interviews with scambaiters or Internet forums, where scambaiters share their stories and discuss the authenticity of dubious online businesses. The discussed methods and tools are utilized while communicating with Scammers. In conclusion, this paper illustrates how these tools can also used in other genres such as digital fiction, investigative journalism and advocacy.
Markus Jakobsson - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Understanding Social Engineering Based Scams - Conclusion and Next Steps
Understanding Social Engineering Based Scams, 2020Co-Authors: Markus JakobssonAbstract:Scam developments and scam countermeasures are both in constant flux, with one reacting to the other. As Scammers identify a new human or technical weakness, they change their techniques. This, in turn, refocuses the efforts of scam researchers and practitioners, and drives entrepreneurs to identify new techniques to provide protection. Scammers, in turn, temporarily retreat, try new methods, and modify and augment their approaches. This is not going to end.
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NDSS - Scambaiter: Understanding Targeted Nigerian Scams on Craigslist.
Proceedings 2014 Network and Distributed System Security Symposium, 2020Co-Authors: Youngsam Park, Jackie Jones, Damon Mccoy, Markus JakobssonAbstract:Advance fee fraud scams, also known as Nigerian scams have evolved from simple untargeted email messages to more sophisticated scams targeted at users of classifieds, dating and other websites. Even though such scams are observed frequently, the community’s understanding of targeted Nigerian scam is limited since the Scammers operate “underground”. In this paper, we focus on fake payment scams targeting users on Craigslist. To better understand this type of scam and associated Scammers, we built an automated data collection system. The system relied on what we term magnetic honeypot advertisements. These are advertisements that are designed to attract Scammers but repel legitimate users – similar to how a magnet attracts one side of a magnet but repels the other. Using advertisements of this type, we offered goods for sale on Craigslist, gathered scam emails and interacted with Scammers. We use this measurement platform to gather three months of data and perform an in-depth analysis. Our analysis provides us with a better understanding of Scammers’ action patterns, automation tools, Scammers’ email account usage and distribution of Scammers’ geolocation. From our analysis of this dataset, we find that around 10 groups of Scammers were responsible for nearly half of the over 13,000 total scam attempts we received. These groups use shipping address and phone numbers in both Nigeria and the U.S. We also identify potential methods of deterring these targeted scams based on patterns in the Scammer’s messages and usage of email accounts that might enable improved filter of their initial messages by content and email address.
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Understanding Social Engineering Based Scams - Case Study: Romance Scams
Understanding Social Engineering Based Scams, 2020Co-Authors: Markus JakobssonAbstract:This chapter describes the romance scam, and an experiment performed to establish metrics around it, including a data collection tool we refer to as the simulated spam filter. We find that while traditional romance scams still account for the large majority of romance scam messages, affiliate marketing scams are increasingly becoming dominant in online dating sites. This type of scam attempts to lure the victim to third-party sites, often promising profile pictures or, under the pretense of identity validation, phishing for the victim’s credit card number. Our simulated spam filter study further shows that around 2 % of the Scammers will click on links included in our auto-response emails, and that 5 % reply to our auto-response emails. Our results shed light on the extent to which romance scam operations are automated, and the approximate geographic location of the Scammers.
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Understanding Social Engineering Based Scams - Scams and Targeting
Understanding Social Engineering Based Scams, 2020Co-Authors: Markus JakobssonAbstract:This short chapter focuses on targeting. Targeting increases the yield of attacks, i.e., the response rate. Targeting also reduces the efficacy of spam filters and related technologies, and as such, vastly improves the profits Scammers reap. We overview how to estimate the yield of attacks, and how to identify scams that are likely to become more common.
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Scambaiter: Understanding Targeted Nigerian Scams on Craigslist
Proceedings 2014 Network and Distributed System Security Symposium, 2014Co-Authors: Youngsam Park, Elaine Shi, Jackie Jones, Damon Mccoy, Markus JakobssonAbstract:—Advance fee fraud scams, also known as Nigerian scams have evolved from simple untargeted email messages to more sophisticated scams targeted at users of classifieds, dating and other websites. Even though such scams are observed frequently, the community's understanding of targeted Nigerian scam is limited since the Scammers operate " underground " . In this paper, we focus on fake payment scams targeting users on Craigslist. To better understand this type of scam and associated Scammers, we built an automated data collection system. The system relied on what we term magnetic honeypot advertisements. These are advertisements that are designed to attract Scammers but repel legitimate users – similar to how a magnet attracts one side of a magnet but repels the other. Using advertisements of this type, we offered goods for sale on Craigslist, gathered scam emails and interacted with Scammers. We use this measurement platform to gather three months of data and perform an in-depth analysis. Our analysis provides us with a better understanding of Scammers' action patterns, automation tools, Scammers' email account usage and distribution of Scammers' geolocation. From our analysis of this dataset, we find that around 10 groups of Scammers were responsible for nearly half of the over 13,000 total scam attempts we received. These groups use shipping address and phone numbers in both Nigeria and the U.S. We also identify potential methods of deterring these targeted scams based on patterns in the Scammer's messages and usage of email accounts that might enable improved filter of their initial messages by content and email address.
Linda Kronman - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Internet Crime and Anti-Fraud Activism: A Hands-On Approach
Security and Privacy Management Techniques and Protocols, 2020Co-Authors: Andreas Zingerle, Linda KronmanAbstract:Scambaiting is a form of vigilantism that targets internet Scammers who try to trick people into advance fee payments. In the past, victims were mainly contacted by bulk emails; now the widespread use of social networking services has made it easier for Scammers to contact potential victims – those who seek various online opportunities in the form of sales and rentals, dating, booking holidays, or seeking for jobs. Scambaiters are online information communities specializing in identifying, documenting, and reporting activities of Scammers. By following scambaiting forums, it was possible to categorize different scambaiting subgroups with various strategies and tools. These were tested in hands-on sessions during creative workshops in order to gain a wider understanding of the scope of existing internet scams as well as exploring counter strategies to prevent internet crime. The aim of the workshops was to recognize and develop diverse forms of anti-scam activism.
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ICIDS - Re: Dakar Arts Festival - Exploring Transmedia Storytelling Methods to Document an Internet Scam
Interactive Storytelling, 2013Co-Authors: Andreas Zingerle, Linda KronmanAbstract:With the 'Re: Dakar Arts Festival' project we present an alternative way to raise awareness about online advance-fee fraud scams, by exploring the extent to which concepts of transmedia storytelling are adaptable in representing a scambait - the practice of scamming a Scammer. By investigating practices of Scammers we can question the trust that is put into online representations. Yet, what happens when transmedia concepts are adapted to documentation material and blended with fictional characters? With the help of an example, we illustrate how a documented scambait evolved into a transmedia story, unfolding over several media channels.
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ICIDS - Faceless Patrons An Augmented Installation Exploring 419-Fictional Narratives
Interactive Storytelling, 2013Co-Authors: Andreas Zingerle, Linda KronmanAbstract:'Faceless patrons' is an installation that documents stories used by Internet Scammers in so called 'overpayment check scams'. Scammers use scripted stories to reach their victims, yet when correspondence continues story worlds start to evolve. We created a virtual character to interact with Scammers who posed to be art buyers. The installation presents five of these interactive narratives in form of a series of photos each coupled with a forged check. By using smartphones or a tablet an augmented reality layer can be accessed to expose further story elements.
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CW - Humiliating Entertainment or Social Activism? Analyzing Scambaiting Strategies Against Online Advance Fee Fraud
2013 International Conference on Cyberworlds, 2013Co-Authors: Andreas Zingerle, Linda KronmanAbstract:Scam baiters are individuals in online information communities specializing in identifying, documenting and reporting actions of so-called '419 Scammers'. A qualitative research approach was applied to the two active scam baiting communities - 419eater.com and the scambaiter.com. Content analysis of several discussions and the examination of interviews from the web radio 'Area 419: Scam baiting Radio' resulted in the seven categories of scam baiting techniques that are presented in this paper. Our aim is to both give a wider understanding of the scope of existing Internet scams as well as answering questions of why and how individuals or communities of scam baiters take action against Internet Scammers. The analysis on various scam baiting practices is intended as a base for future discussions, for instance, whether some scam baiting methods should be implemented in media competence training.
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"Faceless Patrons" -- An Augmented Installation Exploring 419-Fictional Narratives
2013 International Conference on Cyberworlds, 2013Co-Authors: Andreas Zingerle, Linda KronmanAbstract:Summary form only given. Scamming is a global phenomenon and victims can be found everywhere with no difference in gender or race. To persuade the victim into paying money upfront, the Scammers create story worlds with 'get rich quick' schemes that seem 'too good to be true'. The Scammers draw on emotions like greed, empathy or love. The different narratives are situated in the grey area between reality and fiction [1]. Story worlds can get very detailed and involve several characters and are often related to real life. We wanted to take a closer look on these scam narratives a type of cybercrime stories that we coined '419-fiction', '419' relating to the criminal code in Nigeria that deals with fraud. These stories reflects the dystopian side of computer mediated communication where the Internet enables a world of false representations, abuse of trust, humiliation and desperation for opportunities. An augmented installation setup consists of five photo-frames hanging on a wall. Each frame connects to a correspondence with a Scammer and holds a photograph and a fake cheque that was received as an advance payment for Anna Masquers photos. By using a smartphone or a tablet that can be provided for demonstration purpose the visitor can scan each photograph via a third party AR-Browser. Each physical photograph is then overlaid with an AR layer containing a video compilation of images. These images are the result of an Online search in an attempt to confirm or invalidate the authenticity of the Scammers character and his online representations. These images attempt to give a face to the faceless Scammer, yet fails while the posed art buyer can be anyone or no one of the persons found within the search. Additionally to the images the video contains a voice over narrating parts of the email correspondence, enabling the visitor to follow the whole narrative paths of the 'overpayment check scam' scheme.
Youngsam Park - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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NDSS - Scambaiter: Understanding Targeted Nigerian Scams on Craigslist.
Proceedings 2014 Network and Distributed System Security Symposium, 2020Co-Authors: Youngsam Park, Jackie Jones, Damon Mccoy, Markus JakobssonAbstract:Advance fee fraud scams, also known as Nigerian scams have evolved from simple untargeted email messages to more sophisticated scams targeted at users of classifieds, dating and other websites. Even though such scams are observed frequently, the community’s understanding of targeted Nigerian scam is limited since the Scammers operate “underground”. In this paper, we focus on fake payment scams targeting users on Craigslist. To better understand this type of scam and associated Scammers, we built an automated data collection system. The system relied on what we term magnetic honeypot advertisements. These are advertisements that are designed to attract Scammers but repel legitimate users – similar to how a magnet attracts one side of a magnet but repels the other. Using advertisements of this type, we offered goods for sale on Craigslist, gathered scam emails and interacted with Scammers. We use this measurement platform to gather three months of data and perform an in-depth analysis. Our analysis provides us with a better understanding of Scammers’ action patterns, automation tools, Scammers’ email account usage and distribution of Scammers’ geolocation. From our analysis of this dataset, we find that around 10 groups of Scammers were responsible for nearly half of the over 13,000 total scam attempts we received. These groups use shipping address and phone numbers in both Nigeria and the U.S. We also identify potential methods of deterring these targeted scams based on patterns in the Scammer’s messages and usage of email accounts that might enable improved filter of their initial messages by content and email address.
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Scambaiter: Understanding Targeted Nigerian Scams on Craigslist
Proceedings 2014 Network and Distributed System Security Symposium, 2014Co-Authors: Youngsam Park, Elaine Shi, Jackie Jones, Damon Mccoy, Markus JakobssonAbstract:—Advance fee fraud scams, also known as Nigerian scams have evolved from simple untargeted email messages to more sophisticated scams targeted at users of classifieds, dating and other websites. Even though such scams are observed frequently, the community's understanding of targeted Nigerian scam is limited since the Scammers operate " underground " . In this paper, we focus on fake payment scams targeting users on Craigslist. To better understand this type of scam and associated Scammers, we built an automated data collection system. The system relied on what we term magnetic honeypot advertisements. These are advertisements that are designed to attract Scammers but repel legitimate users – similar to how a magnet attracts one side of a magnet but repels the other. Using advertisements of this type, we offered goods for sale on Craigslist, gathered scam emails and interacted with Scammers. We use this measurement platform to gather three months of data and perform an in-depth analysis. Our analysis provides us with a better understanding of Scammers' action patterns, automation tools, Scammers' email account usage and distribution of Scammers' geolocation. From our analysis of this dataset, we find that around 10 groups of Scammers were responsible for nearly half of the over 13,000 total scam attempts we received. These groups use shipping address and phone numbers in both Nigeria and the U.S. We also identify potential methods of deterring these targeted scams based on patterns in the Scammer's messages and usage of email accounts that might enable improved filter of their initial messages by content and email address.
Damon Mccoy - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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NDSS - Scambaiter: Understanding Targeted Nigerian Scams on Craigslist.
Proceedings 2014 Network and Distributed System Security Symposium, 2020Co-Authors: Youngsam Park, Jackie Jones, Damon Mccoy, Markus JakobssonAbstract:Advance fee fraud scams, also known as Nigerian scams have evolved from simple untargeted email messages to more sophisticated scams targeted at users of classifieds, dating and other websites. Even though such scams are observed frequently, the community’s understanding of targeted Nigerian scam is limited since the Scammers operate “underground”. In this paper, we focus on fake payment scams targeting users on Craigslist. To better understand this type of scam and associated Scammers, we built an automated data collection system. The system relied on what we term magnetic honeypot advertisements. These are advertisements that are designed to attract Scammers but repel legitimate users – similar to how a magnet attracts one side of a magnet but repels the other. Using advertisements of this type, we offered goods for sale on Craigslist, gathered scam emails and interacted with Scammers. We use this measurement platform to gather three months of data and perform an in-depth analysis. Our analysis provides us with a better understanding of Scammers’ action patterns, automation tools, Scammers’ email account usage and distribution of Scammers’ geolocation. From our analysis of this dataset, we find that around 10 groups of Scammers were responsible for nearly half of the over 13,000 total scam attempts we received. These groups use shipping address and phone numbers in both Nigeria and the U.S. We also identify potential methods of deterring these targeted scams based on patterns in the Scammer’s messages and usage of email accounts that might enable improved filter of their initial messages by content and email address.
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eCrime - The check is in the mail: Monetization of Craigslist buyer scams
2014 APWG Symposium on Electronic Crime Research (eCrime), 2014Co-Authors: Jackie Jones, Damon MccoyAbstract:Nigerian or advance fee fraud scams continue to gain prevelance within the world of online classified advertisements. As law enforcement, user training, and website technologies improve to thwart known techniques, Scammers continue to evolve their methods of targeting victims and monetizing their scam methods. As our understanding of the underground Scammer community and their methods grows, we gain a greater insight about the critical points of disruption to interrupt the Scammers ability to succeed. In this paper we extend on previous works about fake payment scams targeting Craigslist. To grow our understanding of Scammer methods and how they monetize these scams, we utilize a data collection system posting “honeypot advertisements” on Craigslist offering products for sale and interact with Scammers gathering information on their payment methods. We then conduct an analysis of 75 days worth of data to better understand the Scammer's patterns, supporting agents, geolocations, and methods used to perpetuate fraudulent payments. Our analysis shows that 5 groups are responsible for over 50% of the scam payments received. These groups operate primarily out of Nigeria, but use the services of agents within the United States to facilitate the sending and receiving of payments and shipping of products to addresses both in Nigeria and the United States. This small number of Scammer organizations combined with the necessity of support agents within the United States indicate areas for potential targeting and disruption of the key Scammer groups.
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Scambaiter: Understanding Targeted Nigerian Scams on Craigslist
Proceedings 2014 Network and Distributed System Security Symposium, 2014Co-Authors: Youngsam Park, Elaine Shi, Jackie Jones, Damon Mccoy, Markus JakobssonAbstract:—Advance fee fraud scams, also known as Nigerian scams have evolved from simple untargeted email messages to more sophisticated scams targeted at users of classifieds, dating and other websites. Even though such scams are observed frequently, the community's understanding of targeted Nigerian scam is limited since the Scammers operate " underground " . In this paper, we focus on fake payment scams targeting users on Craigslist. To better understand this type of scam and associated Scammers, we built an automated data collection system. The system relied on what we term magnetic honeypot advertisements. These are advertisements that are designed to attract Scammers but repel legitimate users – similar to how a magnet attracts one side of a magnet but repels the other. Using advertisements of this type, we offered goods for sale on Craigslist, gathered scam emails and interacted with Scammers. We use this measurement platform to gather three months of data and perform an in-depth analysis. Our analysis provides us with a better understanding of Scammers' action patterns, automation tools, Scammers' email account usage and distribution of Scammers' geolocation. From our analysis of this dataset, we find that around 10 groups of Scammers were responsible for nearly half of the over 13,000 total scam attempts we received. These groups use shipping address and phone numbers in both Nigeria and the U.S. We also identify potential methods of deterring these targeted scams based on patterns in the Scammer's messages and usage of email accounts that might enable improved filter of their initial messages by content and email address.
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The check is in the mail: Monetization of Craigslist buyer scams
2014 APWG Symposium on Electronic Crime Research (eCrime), 2014Co-Authors: Jackie Jones, Damon MccoyAbstract:Nigerian or advance fee fraud scams continue to gain prevelance within the world of online classified advertisements. As law enforcement, user training, and website technologies improve to thwart known techniques, Scammers continue to evolve their methods of targeting victims and monetizing their scam methods. As our understanding of the underground Scammer community and their methods grows, we gain a greater insight about the critical points of disruption to interrupt the Scammers ability to succeed. In this paper we extend on previous works about fake payment scams targeting Craigslist. To grow our understanding of Scammer methods and how they monetize these scams, we utilize a data collection system posting “honeypot advertisements” on Craigslist offering products for sale and interact with Scammers gathering information on their payment methods. We then conduct an analysis of 75 days worth of data to better understand the Scammer's patterns, supporting agents, geolocations, and methods used to perpetuate fraudulent payments. Our analysis shows that 5 groups are responsible for over 50% of the scam payments received. These groups operate primarily out of Nigeria, but use the services of agents within the United States to facilitate the sending and receiving of payments and shipping of products to addresses both in Nigeria and the United States. This small number of Scammer organizations combined with the necessity of support agents within the United States indicate areas for potential targeting and disruption of the key Scammer groups.
