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Author: Artists Against 419

Operation Chicken Run

Operation Chicken Run

For a while now, Artists Against 419 has been receiving reports of secondary victimization of female victims. Where victims to non-delivery scams (pet, poultry, livestock etc scams) report these scammers and their websites, the scammers are quick to target female victims threatening impersonation, threatening mothers with their families, call them up late at night when they’re drunk, make lewd suggestions etc. On numerous occasions these scammers have then also impersonated the victims, committing further fraud with their idnetities.  Feedback has…

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Tender Scams: A new twist in 2023

Tender Scams: A new twist in 2023

A new twist in 2023 Extract of an update on the alert at https://blog.aa419.org/2019/11/04/the-south-african-tender-scam-za-tender-scam/ 2023 started off with a bang for South African based tender scams. Users were complaining, asking how an official .gov.za could be used on Twitter in response to a Department of Home Affairs alert at https://twitter.com/HomeAffairsSA/status/1624636511617445889.

When enough is enough?

When enough is enough?

The US Internet Fraud Complaint Center reported, for January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2001: During this same time period, the IFCC has referred 16,775 complaints of fraud, the majority of which was committed over the Internet or similar online service. The total dollar loss from all referred cases of fraud was $17.8 million, with a median dollar loss of $435 per complaint. (…) Internet auction fraud was by far the most reported offense, comprising 42.8% of referred complaints. Non-deliverable…

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WHOIS, Proxies and the GDPR – how consumers lost Security and Privacy

WHOIS, Proxies and the GDPR – how consumers lost Security and Privacy

Artists Against 419 has to say this very clearly: There can be no consumer privacy and security while ICANN Registrars are the custodians of trust on the internet. ICANN has allowed a situation to develop that’s had the exact opposite effect of what the European privacy regulators aimed for, the protection of natural consumer privacy. In turn, this has further not only created a situation where consumers may be trivially deprived of privacy, but also security. Let’s look at this situation with quick examples.

Krampus
Krampus has arrived

Krampus has arrived

While rumors  abound of a chap in red clothes sneaking around, silently slipping presents into houses under Christmas trees for the children, other rumors were spreading. Somebody had preceded Santa. Krampus had arrived. He’s been  quite busy for a while now doing, of all things, cyber inspections!

The South African Tender Scam (ZA Tender Scam)

The South African Tender Scam (ZA Tender Scam)

The South African tender scam has been targeting businesses in Southern Africa for a while. While it’s a procurement scam targeting businesses, which in itself isn’t unique, the execution of it is and is identifying. It has already led to devastating financial losses, forcing many smaller business to close their doors in South Africa, resulting in job losses. This is at a time when the South African economy can ill afford it. Typically new naive, or unaware business owners, easily…

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BEC, a Metamorphosis of Advance Fee Fraud

BEC, a Metamorphosis of Advance Fee Fraud

BEC (Business Email Compromise) has gained more and more attention lately. Most recent statistics show $26 billion in losses the past three years. The sad reality is that BEC could have been avoidable if Advance Fee Fraud (AFF) had been recognized earlier as the threat it is and dealt with appropriately. Inaction on basic levels, despite alerts for the past 16 years from Artists Against 419, allowed these actors to escalate to unknown heights. BEC is the end product of…

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Should we be honoring clientHolds for certain Registrars?

Should we be honoring clientHolds for certain Registrars?

We’ve become aware that the domain suspension system is being gamed. Once we become aware that a malicious domain is targeting consumers, we list it in our database. We also have some free sub-domains and free URLs to content, but this discussion doesn’t include them. Up until now, we’ll submit reports to certain registrars who would suspend them. Likewise certain Registries monitor our database and upon a listing by us would investigate and suspend these domains. These Registrars and Registries…

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