Our lives are connected to the digital world that provides us with numerous utilities and entertainment, but sometimes it presents us with undesirable encounters. Online frauds and scams are examples of such encounters. Waves of commercial advertisement spam emails we receive are not much of a bother, but online scams are rather very serious. Online scamming is a serious cybercrime that inflicts long-term damage both financially and psychologically, and leaves tremendous scars on the victims’ lives. When companies are affected by scams, it can cause internal classified information leakage and/or cause severe financial losses.
In various nations including South Korea, governments, police forces, investigation bureaus, and financial organizations are collaborating to form online scam prevention measures and victim relief campaigns. Recently, public institutions have also been more active in collaborating with Internet service providers, communication companies, mobile messenger companies, and security providers. At the personal level, users have also been active in Internet communities, sharing information about damage and losses caused by online scams. As a Korean data security company, AhnLab has been contributing to mitigate the damage caused by online scams. AhnLab is currently sharing the status of online scamming and information such as smishing, phishing, identity theft, and malicious files disguised as regular files to many public institutions in Korea and publicizes on ASEC Blog any information deemed necessary for the public or the security industry. AhnLab also protects personal and corporate digital assets via diverse security solutions and services.
Yet, despite the effort, the number of cases and severity of financial losses caused by scams are on the rise. This is because scammers are developing newer, more innovative, more advanced online scams as time goes on. It is difficult to describe online scams with only a few types and techniques, because each scam is different depending on who the scammers (criminal or threat actors) are, their goals, their victims, and time and place of the incident. For example, scammers may be large cybercrime enterprises or criminals who made a request on the dark web. The scam’s goal could be to extort money, steal personal identifications, steal account credentials, infect system with a malicious file, or cause defamation and may deploy different means to achieve each goal. Victims also vary in terms of age, gender, digital media accessibility, countries of residence, and security awareness. As previously mentioned, enterprises and organizations can also become victims. In such cases, the type of scam depends on the environment such as whether information has been leaked and the security products in use. The country of the scam victim is also a determining factor as some scams may be effective in Korea, but less effective in Japan.
AhnLab is an integrated data security company that provides solutions and services to a diverse range of clients from personal mobile products to business enterprise security products. AhnLab collects, categorizes, and analyzes a massive amount of threat data in real-time. Through this, AhnLab is able to swiftly detect and respond to the latest threats including online scams.
AhnLab SEcurity intelligence Center (ASEC) believes latest methods and techniques need to be shared in detail so that the users can effectively respond and take appropriate measures on global threat of online scams. AhnLab has already been providing information related to cyber threats via the ASEC Blog and AhnLab TIP (for businesses), and will provide more diverse information to mitigate digital risks such as investment fraud, impersonation, intimidation, and deception. ASEC is planning to provide more information related to online scams through the ASEC Blog and AhnLab TIP (for businesses), hoping that the information is used to minimize damage caused by online scams for users and companies, and swiftly detect cases of inappropriate impersonation and identity theft. ASEC’s threat information related to “online scamming” will be uploaded in the following order:
- Online Scams: Are You Safe From Impersonations, Threats, and Deceptions?
- Online Scams: What Are Online Scams?
- Online Scams: Fraud Through My Phone
- Online Scams: Threats, Deceptions, and Victims
- Online Scams: I Just Wanted Quick, Easy Money
- Online Scams: These Are All Fakes? Distinguishing Truth From Falsehood
- Online Scams: Anyone Can Fall for Scams
- Online Scams: What Should We Do About It?
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Article Link: https://asec.ahnlab.com/en/61976/