Pierluigi Paganini
April 06, 2023
Kaspersky researchers have published an analysis of phishers’ Telegram channels used to promote their services and products.
The experts pointed out that crooks engaged in phishing activities have started to rely on the popular instant messaging platform more in recent months.
On Telegram is possible to find channels that offer:
Free phishing kits that can be used to target users of a large number of global and local brands. Phishers also use to share stolen personal data with their subscribers. The free phishing material is offered as bait of sorts for less experienced phishers to bite and to recruiting an unpaid workforce.
“To attract larger audiences, scam operators advertise their services, promising to teach others how to phish for serious cash.” reads the post published by Kaspersky.
Contents of a free phishing kit archive
“Malicious actors offer “premium” phishing and scam pages for sale. Unlike the primitive copies of popular websites, these offers include pages built from scratch with a range of advanced capabilities or tools for generating such pages.” continues the report. “For instance, a “premium” page may include elements of social engineering, such as an appealing design, promises of large earnings, an anti-detection system and so on.”
The cost of phishing pages goes from $10 per copy up to $50 for an archive containing several pages. A package containing features such as 3-D Secure support and support for configuring a phishing website, may cost up to $300.
“The higher the balance, the more money scammers will typically charge for the credentials.” continues the analysis. “For example, the same Telegram channel offered the credentials for a bank account with $1,400 in it for $110, whereas access to an account with a balance of $49,000 was put up for $700.”
In the last six months, Kaspersky has detected 2.5 million malicious URLs generated with phishing kits. The cyber security firm reported that it has prevented 7.1 million attempts by users to access these malicious sites within the same period.
“Wannabe phishers used to need to find a way onto the dark web, study the forums there and do other things to get started.” concludes the report. “The threshold to joining the phisher community lowered once malicious actors migrated to Telegram and now share insights and knowledge, often for free, right there in the popular messaging service.”
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