Sophos investigates two active cyberfraud operations

Sophos investigates two active cyberfraud operations

- Scammers Use a Fake Gold Trading Marketplace in One Operation and Have Already Scammed $500,000 in Cryptocurrency in Another

- Scammers are Moving Beyond Dating Apps and Increasingly Targeting Global Twitter and Text Users

Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Sophos, a global leader in innovating and delivering cybersecurity as a service, today released details of two expansive, still operational, pig butchering or sha zhu pan rings (elaborate and lengthy financial fraud scams that can cost victims thousands of dollars) that scammers are operating from Asia. One of the rings, based in Hong Kong, involves a fake gold trading marketplace, while the other, based in Cambodia and with ties to Chinese organized crime, netted the scammers $500,000 in cryptocurrency in just one month. In both schemes, the scammers targeted Sophos’ principal threat researcher, Sean Gallagher, directly via Twitter and text message, respectively, rather than dating apps, the traditional method used to find and target victims. Part one of a two-part series, “Fool’s Gold: Dissecting a Fake Gold Market Pig Butchering Scam,” released today, focuses on the inner workings of the ring based out of Hong Kong, which demonstrates how these scammers are upping their technical sophistication to lure in and con targets.

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