Scammers Impersonate Financial Advisors Through Social Media Platforms
A large scam campaign is targeting users on LinkedIn and other social media platforms posing as financial advisors, according to researchers at DomainTools. The researchers explain that these scams can be very difficult to detect, even for users who know how to recognize them. The scammers contact targets over LinkedIn, as well as social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
“Financial advisor impersonation is straightforward conceptually, but simplicity in subject belies complexity in practice,” the researchers write. “Financial impersonation scams require careful, layered deception involving significant interaction with a target to succeed. To that point, engagements as prospective clients with several financial advisor impersonators suggest they possess a competent understanding of financial markets.”
The threat actors also set up convincing financial advisor websites using bulletproof hosting providers.
“Given the complexity of manipulating a target when impersonating a financial advisor, impersonation websites must remain accessible for as long as possible,” the researchers write. “Therefore, the selection of a hosting provider is critical to the success of this scam. This report explores this point in detail in the next section, using a particularly suspicious hosting provider as an example.”
The researchers conclude that users and organizations should use security best practices to avoid falling for spearphishing attacks.
“Prospective clients would be wise to contact financial advisors through their respective financial institution’s official website and insist on speaking with them over the telephone, preferably in a video call,” the researchers write. “Consumers would also be wise to approach any cryptocurrency investment with extreme caution and avoid non-traditional investments with ‘guaranteed’ rates of return. Investment opportunities that seem too good to be true probably are.”
New-school security awareness training can give your employees a healthy sense of suspicion so they can avoid falling for these types of social engineering attacks.
DomainTools has the story.
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