Beware! Hackers Lurking on Telegram – Watch Out For This Phishing Trick!

If you use Telegram, this may be an important alert for you, as scammers and hackers are using a malicious Telegram bot called “Telekopye” to run large-scale phishing scams, according to a recent report.

According to ESETResearch security researcher Radek Jizba, Telekopye is an advanced tool that allows criminals to create convincing phishing websites, emails, text messages and more.

A group of hackers operating under the guise of a legitimate company known as Neandertals employ Telekopye in a structured framework. They recruit members through underground forums who then access specific Telegram channels to communicate and monitor ongoing activities.

They have three primary scam targets – seller, buyer or refund. Scams by sellers involve tricking victims into buying non-existent products, called swindles.

Buyer scams involve Neanderthals posing as buyers to trick traders (mammoths) into revealing financial information. Refund scams mislead Mammoths into thinking they will receive a refund only to deduct the same amount again.

These hackers use different strategies for successful scams. In seller scams, they create additional images of a non-existent product and modify internet images to make reverse image searches difficult.

Shopper scams involve careful planning, with Neanderthals selecting targets based on factors such as gender, age, online shopping experience, ratings, reviews, completed purchases and product types, and tailoring their approach to achieve a higher success rate.

To attract mammoths, Neanderthals engage in real estate fraud by creating false housing ads. They maintain anonymity using VPNs, proxies, and TOR networks, making it difficult for authorities to track them down.

Meanwhile, another new scam is on the rise this year, scammers have been duping people out of lakhs of rupees while posing as customs officials in various metro cities.

In this new method called courier scam, fraudsters posing as police officials or NCRB agents contact people who accuse them of illegal activities related to sending and receiving packages containing drugs or other prohibited substances.

Then the scammers convince the victims that the police will contact them and the whole extortion scheme will start to investigate the false complaint against the victims. The courier scam has targeted people aged 35-50, and hundreds of cases have been reported to the police this year.

(Credits to IANS)