"SpyCloud's investigations team analyzed years of cybercrime telemetry from infostealer malware infections and identified more than 630,000 unique threat actors whose digital footprint spans three telltale categories: cybercrime forums, dating and social platforms, and cryptocurrency exchanges. That operational signature - learning criminal tradecraft, targeting victims on dating apps, and laundering proceeds through crypto - is the fingerprint of romance scam operators."
"Even more striking: over 10,000 actors showed activity across all five infrastructure categories we track, including VPN/proxy services for anonymization and identity theft resources for building fake personas. These aren't opportunistic catfishers. They're professionals. From Catfishing to Call Centers: The Industrialization of Heartbreak The romance scams of a decade ago were cottage operations - individual fraudsters running one or two personas from internet cafes. Today's operations look more like enterprise sales departments, complete with CRM systems, shift work, quotas, and quality assurance reviews."
Over 630,000 unique threat actors operate romance scams at industrial scale, with digital footprints across cybercrime forums, dating and social platforms, and cryptocurrency exchanges. More than 10,000 actors show activity across five infrastructure categories including VPN/proxy services and identity theft resources, indicating professional, coordinated operations. Operations now resemble enterprise sales departments with CRM systems, shift work, quotas, and quality assurance reviews. Romance scams are the fastest-growing global fraud category, causing U.S. losses exceeding $1.3 billion annually while many victims never report. FBI average losses range from $10,000 to $50,000, with some victims losing entire life savings.
Read at Securitymagazine
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