COVID-19 CRISIS HAS FUELLED THE INCREASE OF CYBERCRIME IN ALL ITS FORMS :EUROPOL

Thu 11 November 2021:

According to Europe’s policing agency, the coronavirus pandemic has generated a dramatic increase in online retail fraud, with fraudsters continuing to prey on victims working from home.

According to Europol’s annual cybercrime report, Fears of contracting the virus have prompted a surge in online buying, which has resulted in a significant increase in delivery fraud in the second year of the pandemic.

“The extension of lockdowns throughout Europe has brought with it a number of new e-commerce opportunities, which have often proven to be a target for criminals,” the Hague-based agency said.

“Criminals offer goods and receive payment without delivery, defraud online shops with weak security measures, or use delivery services as phishing lures,” it said.

Dark Web users are increasingly using Wickr and Telegram as communication channels or to bypass market fees.

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Monero, according to Europol, remained the most popular method of payment for illegal goods and services on the dark web.

Weapons appear to be increasingly trafficked on the dark web and in encrypted chat rooms, according to Europol.

Novel weapons, such as three-dimensional printer-made weapons, were also on the rise.

Criminal gangs posing as delivery services pretended to offer information about a parcel, but in reality were attempting to obtain the victim’s account and credit card information.

Mobile malware operators have leveraged the increase in online shopping by using delivery services as phishing lures to trick their victims into downloading their malicious code, stealing their credentials or perpetrating different forms of delivery fraud.

Mobile banking trojans have become a specifically noteworthy threat due to the increased popularity of mobile banking. Criminals have continued utilising COVID-19 narratives for the online sale of counterfeit medical products and vishing to steal login credentials.

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