The U.S. Department of Justice has filed charges against five men who allegedly targeted employees of various companies through phishing campaign.
In a recent announcement, the Department of Justice stated that the accused co-conspirators had targeted United States firms with phishing messages. They also harvested employees’ credentials. Akil Davis, Assistant director in charge of the FBI Los Angeles Field Office explained how the men used the information. “as a gateway to steal millions in their cryptocurrency accounts.”
The five young men—aged from 20 to 25—are charged by a federal grand jury indictment with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of conspiracy, and one count of aggravated identity theft. Some of the co-conspirators were already charged with crimes and have pleaded innocent.
The Persistence of the People ReutersThe five alleged members were allegedly all part of “Scattered Spider,” Hacking group that is responsible for attacks against MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment. This group is known for its involvement in "data theft for extortion using multiple social engineering techniques," According to an FBI 2023 advisory, ransomware is also used.
The maximum penalty for each defendant convicted of conspiracy could be 20 years. For conspiracy it can range from five to ten years. And for aggravated identitiy theft, the mandatory minimum sentence is two consecutive years.
Martin Estrada, United States Attorney, explained the authorities “allege that this group of cybercriminals perpetrated a sophisticated scheme to steal intellectual property and proprietary information worth tens of millions of dollars.” He made a point of highlighting that “phishing and hacking has become increasingly sophisticated and can result in enormous losses.”
Estrada suggests that “if something about the text or email you received or website you’re viewing seems off, it probably is.” The sentiments expressed by his comments seem to echo those of recent reports from cybersecurity experts.
The number of crypto phishing attacks is on the increase
It follows reports that an unwitting Pepe user lost $1.4m after signing off-chain Permit2 when they were phished. Colorado authorities have reported that in a recent case, crypto-fraudsters managed to scam state residents, taking thousands of dollars. Bitcoin.
Kaspersky is a Russian anti-virus and cybersecurity company that highlighted the increase in phishing incidents by 40 percent over one year. At the same time, there was a decrease in the detection of traditional financial threats—showing a likely shift in strategies by bad actors.