#342696 by Terminator5
Tue Oct 24, 2017 2:06 am
https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/fbi-se ... on-a-10033
Some of the top types of extortion reported to the FBI in 2016 included the following six schemes, often designed to elicit a payment from victims:
•Data breaches: As defined by the FBI, "sensitive, protected or confidential data belonging to a well-known or established organization is copied, transmitted, viewed, stolen or used by an individual unauthorized to do so."
•Denial of service: This involves threatening to knock a business site offline, often via distributed denial-of-service attacks. Attackers may temporarily disrupt a site using DDoS-on-demand, referring to stresser/booter services - to increase the pressure to pay.
•Government impersonation schemes: While these schemes come in many forms, one common version involves con artists reaching out to harmed investors, offering to help them recover their funds in return for a fee.
•Hitman schemes: These involve email-based extortion in which a perpetrator threatens to kill a victim or their family.
•Loan schemes: Criminals impersonate a debt collector, threatening legal consequences unless funds are remitted.
•Sextortion: Criminals threaten to distribute private or sensitive material relating to the victims, unless they provide money, sexual favors or images of a sexual nature.
Underreporting Remains Rampant
As noted, the above findings include the notable caveat that according to the FBI, only one in seven internet victims may be reporting such crime to authorities.
Reporting such incidents, however, helps the FBI ensure that it's obtaining sufficient funds from Congress to investigate these crimes. In addition, IC3 gives law enforcement agencies a centralized view of many types of attack. The FBI's field office in Boston, for example, notes that it reviews BEC complaints logged with IC3 on a daily basis.
"The information is always up to the minute, which is important in these types of schemes," according to a testimonial from an unnamed, Boston-based FBI agent included in the FBI report. "IC3 also proactively reaches out to the field when large BEC complaints involving recently wired funds are filed."
Where wire transfers are concerned, time is of the essence, and the FBI says that having IC3 serve as the centralized repository for reporting BEC attacks in the United States has already been paying off. "In one instance, IC3 proactively reached out to the Boston field office to alert us to a $1.8 million wire," the agent's testimonial reads. "Based on the early notification, Boston [field office] was able to take the necessary steps to successfully recover the entire amount on behalf of the victim."
Daniel 8 :25