News
Facebook Scammers Pose As Support Staff On 3,200 Fake Profiles
A leading cybersecurity firm’s Dubai-based team uncovered a widespread scam targeting celebrities, businesses, sports teams, and individual accounts.
Global cybersecurity experts Group-IB today published new research into a worldwide phishing campaign carried out on Facebook by cybercriminals impersonating Meta (Facebook’s parent company) support staff.
Between February and March 2023, Group-IB researchers based in Dubai identified over 3,200 Facebook profiles falsely claiming to be written by Meta support staff in over 20 languages. Upon discovering the scammers’ accounts, Group-IB’s Computer Emergency Response Team shared information with Facebook, which it must be noted had already deleted some of the offending profiles.
The cybercriminals’ goal was to hack the Facebook accounts of public figures and celebrities, businesses, sports teams, and individual accounts. As part of the elaborate scam, cookie data, and session hijacking were employed, though the criminals mostly used traditional phishing techniques to trick people into voluntarily entering email and password information.
Group-IB researchers began tracking this widespread scam in February 2023. As well as 3,200 fake Facebook profiles containing scam posts, the cybersecurity experts also discovered 220 websites intended to trick users into parting with their data.
The Details Of The Scam
This Facebook scammers used social engineering techniques to trick users into thinking their accounts were marked for suspension due to copyright violations. If victims attempted to verify their profile to prevent it from being blocked, they would be taken to a phishing website, where they were presented with a page that contained official-looking Meta or Facebook branding.
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“Cybercriminals can use compromised accounts to launch further phishing attacks. Individuals can suffer legal and reputational damage [and] threat actors could also gain access to the victim’s financial services [and] hold compromised accounts for ransom, demanding payment from the victim for retrieval of the account,” says Sharef Hlal, Head of Group-IB’s Digital Risk Protection Analytics Team.
Group-IB recommends social network users ensure that their passwords are “strong and unique, and that they enable two-factor authentication (2FA) to provide an extra layer of security”. In addition, if you’re ever directed away from official social media platform pages, it’s a good idea to closely check the URL to ensure it’s legitimate.
News
Lebanon Ministers Meet Visa Over National Digital Payment Platform
Finance and technology ministers say a comparative study and roadmap will follow before any decision on adopting a model.
Lebanon’s finance and technology ministers met representatives from Visa last week to discuss a proposed unified national digital payment platform for government services, according to a readout from the Ministry of Finance.
The meeting brought together Finance Minister Yassin Jaber, Minister of State for Technology and Artificial Intelligence Kamal Shehadeh, a Visa delegation, and experts from both ministries. Discussion focused on whether Lebanon could establish a single platform through which citizens and institutions would pay taxes, fees, fines and other official transactions electronically, using mobile phones and other digital channels.
The Visa delegation presented examples from countries that have adopted unified government payment platforms, including the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Estonia and Jordan. According to the readout, the examples were presented as having increased collection rates and expanded financial inclusion.
Talks covered settlement mechanisms, direct transfer to the treasury account, financial reconciliation, risk management, cybersecurity, fees, and an operational model that would involve the private sector. The parties agreed to continue technical and institutional consultations, prepare a comparative study, and develop an implementation roadmap before any decision on adopting a model for Lebanon.
Jaber said the Ministry of Finance had already enabled citizens to pay using credit cards and e-wallets through transfer companies, but described the proposed platform as a further step. He framed the development of electronic payment and collection systems as a priority within the ministry’s modernization plan.
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Shehadeh outlined the citizen-facing concept as a single mobile application through which users could settle obligations to ministries, government institutions and other bodies.
“The idea, in short, is that any citizen downloads an application on their mobile phone, through which they can pay all service obligations for all ministries, government institutions, or those owned by the Lebanese state, and others as well, as the platform is not limited only to state institutions,” he said.
Shehadeh added that the platform would not displace banks and money transfer companies that currently provide collection services to the state, calling it complementary to their work.
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