by AKANI CHAUKE
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – USERS of LinkedIn must be wary of a new wave of phishing scams targeting people with the promise of a dream job.
The cyber cons are targeting users in the Middle East, Turkiye, and Africa (META) region.
Specifically, cyber criminals focus on users from Nigeria, Turkiye and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Crooks posing as Human Resources managers from high end fashion brands are luring victims to download fraudulent files with the intent to steal credentials for Facebook Business accounts and run ads for monetary gain.
People working in the field of digital marketing and sales are prime targets for this scam.
Kaspersky experts found that scammers were using a malware named Ducktail to infiltrate devices.
Ducktail is designed to steal user logins and passwords for Facebook Business accounts and uses stealthy techniques to remain undetected.
“This is not the first time Ducktail malware has made a comeback,” Amin Hasbini, Head of Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) for META at Kaspersky, said.
The expert said enticing people with a dream job that includes a hefty remuneration is a classic example of a social engineering tactic commonly used by scammers.
“Scammers are capable of communicating from accounts that look like corporate addresses, but in reality are compromised or from free email services or phishing domains.”
Users must understand how the recruiter found them, research the ‘employer’, make sure they have a security solution installed, and most importantly, avoid clicking on links or downloading attachments from unknown or suspicious senders.
Meanwhile, according to the new research by NordLayer, a network security solution for businesses, half of the businesses (56 percent) experienced at least one LinkedIn scam this year.
A fake job offer is the most popular scam (48 percent). A damaged reputation (48 percent) was the leading outcome of LinkedIn scams. Almost half of companies (45 percent) are also aware of a scam on LinkedIn using their organisation’s brand name.
– CAJ News