Taken together, this suggests that the scams could all be operated by the same group. “The fake applications we uncovered impersonate popular and trusted financial apps from all over the world, while the dating site sting begins with a friendly exchange of messages to build trust before the target is asked to install a fake app. Such tactics make the fraud seem very believable,” explained Jagadeesh Chandraiah, senior threat researcher at Sophos.
In one of the schemes investigated, the scammers befriended users via a dating app, setting up a profile and exchanging messages with individual targets before attempting to lure them into installing and adding money and cryptocurrency to a fake app.
If targets later tried to withdraw funds or close the account, the attackers simply blocked their access. In other cases, targets were caught through websites designed to resemble that of a trusted brand, such as a bank.
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