Scammers Scamming Scammers

from the online-cannibalism dept

Online scammers like to prey on people who, for whatever reason, won't go to authorities for help. It certainly helps the perpetrators of the Nigerian 419 scams that there's not much a person can do once they're deep into the scam. But one group that really can't seek help is the scammers themselves. Researchers at CypherTrust have observed clashes between the sellers of fake goods (like fake Viagra) and carders, old-fashioned scammers who buy things with stolen credit card numbers. Typically, the merchant hires a spammer who receives a cut of the sales generated from his millions of emails. But sometimes a carder will pretend to be a spammer, sign up to spam on behalf of a merchant, and then turnaround and ring up phony sales with stolen credit cards. The carder gets his own commission, while the merchant is faced with a deluge of complaints and chargebacks from the credit card company. To avoid this, computer criminals try to set up networks so that people know who they're working with. But just as phishers are able to impersonate a bank or PayPal, it's clear that attackers are vulnerable to the same techniques. Though Blue Security failed to beat back spammers using dirty tricks, perhaps more can be done by breaching the spammers' networks of trust.
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  • identicon
    ElectricMayhem, 23 May 2006 @ 1:18pm

    Scammers Scamming

    This has to be the finest bit of poetic justice ever....all it needs now is for the carders to get scammed by the card companies....come on Mastercard et al....be inventive!!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Tim, 23 May 2006 @ 1:58pm

    Justice, huh?

    One man's justice is another man's episode of the Sopranos. I'd hate to have some angry criminal beating down my door to kill me in my sleep because my computer was running Blue Frog.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Rick, 23 May 2006 @ 2:18pm

    ROFLMAO!

    It's nice to read GOOD NEWS every once in awhile - thanks Techdirt!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    JAMES C KAZEL, 23 May 2006 @ 2:27pm

    SLAMMERS

    WHAT CAN WE DO ???
    SEND A VIRUS BACK ????????

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    dp, 23 May 2006 @ 2:40pm

    The first scam the scammer...

    This is one of the most politically incorrect and funny things that I have ever read....

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    dp, 23 May 2006 @ 2:43pm

    The first scam the scammer...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    |333173|3|_||3, 23 May 2006 @ 8:35pm

    Serves them right

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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