"At least since 2016, Chinese-speaking criminal groups have erected industrial-scale scam centers across Southeast Asia, creating special economic zones that are devoted to fraudulent investment and impersonation operations. These compounds are host to thousands of people who are lured with the promise of high-paying jobs, only to have their passports and be forced to conduct scams under the threat of violence. INTERPOL has characterized these networks as human trafficking-fuelled fraud on an industrial scale."
"One of the crucial drivers of the pig butchering (aka romance baiting) scams is service providers who supply the networks with all the tools to run and manage social engineering operations, as well as swiftly launder stolen funds and cryptocurrencies and move ill-gotten proceeds to accounts that cannot be reached by law enforcement."
""Large scam compounds such as the Golden Triangle Economic Zone (GTSEZ) are now using ready-made applications and templates from PBaaS providers," Infoblox said in a report published last week. "Compounding the situation further, what once required technical expertise, or an outlay for physical infrastructure, can now be purchased as an off-the-shelf service offering everything from stolen identities and front companies to turnkey scam platforms and mobile apps, dramatically lowering the barrier to entry.""
Two service providers supply online criminal networks with tools and infrastructure that fuel pig-butchering-as-a-service (PBaaS). Since 2016 Chinese-speaking groups have erected industrial-scale scam centers across Southeast Asia, creating special economic zones devoted to fraudulent investment and impersonation. Compounds host thousands, lure workers with promises of high-paying jobs, confiscate passports, and coerce victims into scams under threat of violence. INTERPOL characterizes the networks as human trafficking-fuelled fraud. PBaaS providers sell ready-made applications, templates, stolen identities, front companies, turnkey scam platforms, mobile apps, and laundering services, dramatically lowering technical and infrastructure barriers. Penguin Account Store operates as a crimeware-as-a-service vendor offering fraud kits and scam templates.
Read at The Hacker News
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