Financial scams accounted for 57% of all financially motivated cyber crime in 2021, according to new research by cyber security firm Group-IB.
The research has revealed that the scam industry is becoming more structured and involves more and more parties divided into hierarchical groups. The number of such groups jumped to a record high of 390, which is 3.5 times more than 2020 when the maximum number of active groups was close to 110.
Due to scam-as-a-service (SaaS), in 2021 the number of cyber criminals in one scam gang increased 10 times compared to 2020 and now reaches 100. Traffic has become the circulatory system of scam projects.
Group-IB researchers emphasise that the number of websites used for purchasing and providing ‘grey’ and illegal traffic and that lure victims into fraudulent schemes has increased by 1.5 times in the last one year.
Scammers are evolving in 2022 on a new level of scam attack automation: No more non-targeted users. Scammers are now attracting specific groups of victims to increase conversion rates. Social media is more often becoming the first point of contact between scammers and their potential victims.
The number of brand-impersonating scam resources created per month also increased. In the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Europe, Group-IB analysts noted an increase of 150%, 83%, and 89% respectively.
While hacker groups continue successfully to attack business and government organisations worldwide, scammers have adopted their methods to improve their schemes. Chaotic loners attract organised criminal gangs with SaaS.
Scammers now attract specific groups of victims to increase conversion rates. The statistics relating to grey and illegal traffic on one platform, which was taken as an example by Group-IB DRP analysts, showed that India, the US and Vietnam are the main countries where the platform is distributed. M