The Financial Review shared a selection of likely scam webpages that were appearing prominently within search rankings with cybersecurity firm CyberCX. Analysis of the website’s functionality, backend design and server providers indicate one group is running many dozens of scam websites.
“The thing that strikes me is that the threat actor has done their homework to match the trend of what financial instruments people might be interested in, in relation to current events,” CyberCX cyber intelligence analyst Oliver Smith said.
Mr Smith said activity appears to have kicked off around mid-2021 with a more global focus, across the UK, US, Canada and Australia. Fake investments offered were on the riskier side, such as pre-IPO investment in SpaceX, share trading platforms, or financial products facilitated by cryptocurrency.
Links to Russia’s DarkSide
“Moving forward as the economic tide has changed a little bit into the beginning of this year they really turned and focused their efforts differently. Bonds have been their No.1 thing, and then term deposits – they were really pitching their lures more at people who are looking to invest their superannuation,” he said.
Calls to AusBondTrust and Au-Investor, which had the same number, were answered by a call-back service.
The sites have disclaimers that they are not authorised or regulated by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority or the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. However, financial products…
