Telekopye transitions to targeting tourists via hotel booking scam

The rising reputation of on-line marketplaces has attracted fraudsters preying on unsuspecting patrons and sellers, seeking to rating fee card info relatively than to strike a cut price. ESET researchers have discovered that one such organized scammer community – which makes use of Telekopye, a toolkit found by ESET Analysis in 2023 – has expanded its operations to focus on customers of widespread lodging reserving platforms.

Final yr, we printed a two-part blogpost collection on Telekopye, a Telegram-based toolkit cybercriminals use to rip-off individuals on on-line marketplaces. The primary half targeted on Telekopye’s key options, whereas the second half examined the interior workings of the affiliated rip-off teams. On this blogpost, we comply with up on what has modified in Telekopye operations since our final publication, based mostly on our continued monitoring. We glance into how these scammer teams have branched out to concentrating on Reserving.com and Airbnb, in addition to their numerous different efforts to optimize their operations and maximize monetary acquire. Final however not least, we offer steering on how one can keep protected against these scams.

We offered our up to date findings on Telekopye on the Virus Bulletin conference on October 2^nd, 2024, and in our white paper, which you’ll learn in full here. The paper was additionally printed on the Virus Bulletin website.

Key factors of this blogpost:

• ESET Analysis shares up to date findings on Telekopye, a rip-off toolkit designed to assist cybercriminals defraud individuals on on-line marketplaces.
• Whereas our earlier analysis explored the technical and organizational background of Telekopye scams, our newest analysis describes the scammers’ numerous efforts to maximise their monetary positive aspects – increasing their sufferer pool, benefiting from seasonal alternatives, and bettering their instruments and operations.
• Most notably, Telekopye teams have expanded their concentrating on to widespread lodging reserving platforms, resembling Reserving.com and Airbnb.
• This new rip-off state of affairs comes with a concentrating on twist, using compromised accounts of reliable lodges and lodging suppliers.
• These scams have been particularly prevalent in the summertime vacation season within the focused areas, surpassing Telekopye market scams, in keeping with ESET telemetry.

Telekopye overview

Telekopye is a toolkit that operates as a Telegram bot, primarily serving as a Swiss Military knife for turning on-line market scams into an organized illicit enterprise. It’s utilized by dozens of rip-off teams, with as much as 1000’s of members, to steal thousands and thousands from Mammoths, as they name the focused patrons and sellers. Neanderthals, as we name the scammers, require little to no technical information – Telekopye takes care of every thing in a matter of seconds.

Found by ESET Analysis in 2023, Telekopye has been in use since at the least 2016, with victims all around the world. A number of leads level to Russia because the nation of origin of the bot’s writer(s) and likewise the scammers utilizing it. Telekopye is designed to focus on a big number of on-line providers in Europe and North America, resembling OLX, Vinted, eBay, Wallapop, and others. On the time of writing, we’ve got counted roughly 90 totally different providers being focused by the scams.

Neanderthals – members of any Telegram group using Telekopye – acquire entry to the bot’s UI, which allows easy era of phishing emails, SMS messages, net pages, and different options.

Telekopye teams have a business-like operation, with a transparent hierarchy, outlined roles, inside practices – together with admission and mentoring processes for newcomers – mounted working hours, and fee payouts for Telekopye directors. The Employees performing the scams should flip over any delicate info stolen, and don’t truly steal any cash – that’s managed by different roles within the group. Every group retains a clear chat of all transactions, seen to all members.

Neanderthals make the most of two primary eventualities for concentrating on on-line marketplaces – one the place they pose as sellers and one other, far more frequent, the place they pose as patrons. Each eventualities finish with the sufferer/Mammoth coming into fee card info or on-line banking credentials right into a phishing net web page mimicking a fee gateway.

Just lately, Telekopye teams have expanded their concentrating on by including assist for scamming customers of widespread on-line platforms for reserving lodging, which we cowl within the following part.

Branching out to lodging reserving platforms

In 2024, Telekopye teams have expanded their scamming playbook with schemes concentrating on customers of widespread on-line platforms for lodge and house reservations, resembling Reserving.com and Airbnb. They’ve additionally elevated the sophistication of their sufferer choice and concentrating on.

Focusing on with a twist

On this new rip-off state of affairs, Neanderthals contact a focused consumer of one in all these platforms, claiming that there’s a difficulty with the consumer’s reserving fee. The message accommodates a hyperlink to a well-crafted, legitimate-looking net web page mimicking the abused platform.

The web page accommodates prefilled details about a reserving, such because the check-in and checkout dates, value, and placement. This comes with a troubling twist: the data offered on the fraudulent pages matches actual bookings made by the focused customers.

The Neanderthals obtain this by using compromised accounts of reliable lodges and lodging suppliers on the platforms, which they almost definitely entry by way of stolen credentials bought on cybercriminal boards. Utilizing their entry to those accounts, scammers single out customers who just lately booked a keep and haven’t paid but – or paid very just lately – and speak to them by way of in-platform chat. Relying on the platform and the Mammoth’s settings, this results in the Mammoth receiving an electronic mail or SMS from the reserving platform.

This makes the rip-off a lot tougher to identify, as the knowledge offered is personally related to the victims, arrives by way of the anticipated communication channel, and the linked, pretend web sites look as anticipated. The one seen signal of one thing being amiss are the web sites’ URLs, which don’t match these of the impersonated, reliable web sites. Neanderthals might also use their very own electronic mail addresses for the preliminary communication (relatively than the compromised accounts), through which case the emails could be extra simply acknowledged as malicious.

As soon as the goal fills out the shape on the phishing web page (Determine 1), they’re dropped at the ultimate step of the “reserving” – a type requesting fee card info (Determine 2). As within the market scams, card particulars entered into the shape are harvested by the Neanderthals and used to steal cash from the Mammoth’s card.

In accordance with ESET telemetry, this sort of rip-off began gaining traction in 2024. As seen in Determine 3, the accommodation-themed scams noticed a pointy uptick in July, surpassing the unique Telekopye market scams for the primary time, with greater than double the detections throughout that month. In August and September, the detection ranges for the 2 classes evened out.

As this improve coincides with the summer season vacation season within the focused areas – prime time for benefiting from individuals reserving stays – it stays to be seen whether or not this development will proceed. Wanting on the total 2024 information, we will see that these newer scams have amassed roughly half of the detection numbers of {the marketplace} variants. That is noteworthy contemplating that the newer scams give attention to two platforms solely, in comparison with the wide range of on-line marketplaces focused by Telekopye.

Superior Telekopye options

Apart from diversifying their goal portfolio, Neanderthals have additionally improved their instruments and operations to extend their monetary returns.

All through our monitoring of Telekopye, we’ve noticed that totally different Telegram teams implement their very own superior options into the toolkit, geared toward rushing up the rip-off course of, bettering communication with targets, defending phishing web sites in opposition to disruption by opponents, and different targets.

Automated phishing web page era

To hurry up the method of making rip-off supplies for posing as patrons on marketplaces, Neanderthals applied net scrapers for widespread focused platforms. With these, solely the URL to the product is required, as an alternative of getting to manually fill out a questionnaire in regards to the focused Mammoth and product in query. Telekopye parses the online web page and extracts all vital info routinely, offering a big speedup for the scammers.

Interactive chatbot with on-the-fly translation

Neanderthals preserve a big assortment of predefined solutions to questions generally requested by Mammoths. These are translated into numerous languages and stored as a part of inside documentation, with the translations perfected through the years.

Neanderthals usually use these predefined phrases to attempt to direct the Mammoth to the phishing web site, which comes with a chatbot within the decrease proper nook. Any message the Mammoth enters into the chat is forwarded to the Neanderthal’s Telegram chat, the place it’s routinely translated. Computerized translation of Neanderthals’ messages isn’t supported – Neanderthals translate their messages manually, often utilizing DeepL. Determine 3 exhibits how such an interplay seems to be from the Neanderthal’s and Mammoth’s factors of view.

Anti-DDoS measures

The overwhelming majority of the phishing web sites are serviced by Cloudflare, counting on that service’s added safety, primarily in opposition to crawlers and computerized evaluation. Apparently, a number of the Telekopye phishing web sites additionally include DDoS safety included. In accordance with the Neanderthals’ information base, which we obtained by infiltrating their ranks, this function goals to guard in opposition to assaults by rival teams. These are generally launched as a way to disrupt a competitor’s operations for a brief interval.

Legislation enforcement operations

In late 2023, after ESET Analysis had printed its two-part collection on Telekopye, Czech and Ukrainian police arrested tens of cybercriminals using Telekopye, together with the important thing gamers, in two joint operations. Each operations have been aimed in opposition to an unspecified variety of Telekopye teams, which had amassed at the least €5 million (roughly US$5.5 million) since 2021, based mostly on police estimates.

Apart from the apparent success in disrupting such felony actions, the arrests offered new insights into the teams’ workings, most notably recruitment and employment practices. The teams in query have been managed, from devoted workspaces, by middle-aged males from Jap Europe and West and Central Asia. They recruited individuals in tough life conditions, by way of job portal postings promising “simple cash”, in addition to by concentrating on technically expert overseas college students at universities.

Some perpetrators confessed that in addition they participated in one other rip-off group, just like the Telekopye ones, that utilized name facilities. The police realized that the recruits in that operation have been typically stripped of their passports and private IDs to make quitting very tough. Additional, the managers generally went as far as to threaten the workers and their members of the family. This chilling growth places these operations into a totally totally different gentle.

Suggestions

One of the best ways to remain protected in opposition to scams pushed by Telekopye is being conscious of Neanderthals’ ways and exercising warning on the affected platforms. Apart from figuring out what crimson flags to concentrate to, we strongly suggest utilizing a good antimalware answer in your machine to step in in case you do find yourself being lured to a phishing web site.

On-line market scams

• At all times confirm the individual you might be speaking with, primarily their historical past on the platform, age of their account, ranking, and placement – a location too distant, a recent account with no historical past, or a foul ranking could be indicators of a scammer.
• With the enhancements in machine translation, messages from a scammer may not increase any crimson flags by way of grammar. Somewhat than specializing in the language, give attention to the dialog itself – overly keen or assertive communication ought to increase some issues.
• Hold the communication on the platform, even when the individual you’re speaking to suggests in any other case. Their unwillingness to remain on the platform ought to be a significant crimson flag.
• In case you are a purchaser, use safe interfaces inside the platform all through the entire shopping for course of, every time accessible. In any other case, insist on in-person change of products and cash, or prepare to your selection of dependable supply providers with the choice to pay on supply.
• In case you are a vendor, use safe interfaces inside the platform all through the entire promoting course of, every time accessible. In any other case, handle supply choices your self and don’t comply with these supplied by the customer.
• For those who get to some extent the place you do go to a hyperlink despatched by the individual you might be speaking to, make sure you rigorously verify the URL, content material, and certificates properties of the web site earlier than participating with it.

Lodging reserving scams

• Earlier than filling out any kinds associated to your reserving, all the time be sure to haven’t left the official web site or app of the platform in query. Being directed to an exterior URL to proceed together with your reserving and fee is an indicator of a attainable rip-off.
• As a result of this rip-off makes use of compromised accounts of lodging suppliers, contacting the suppliers immediately isn’t a dependable approach of verifying the legitimacy of fee requests. When unsure, contact the official buyer assist of the platform (Booking.com, Airbnb) or report a safety situation (Booking.com, Airbnb).
• To guard your account from compromise, whether or not you’re reserving lodging or renting one out, use a powerful password and allow two-factor authentication wherever accessible.

Conclusion

Our analysis into Telekopye actions has given us distinctive insights into these scams: we have been capable of perceive the technical means behind the scope of the operations, the enterprise facet of Telekopye teams, and even study Neanderthals themselves.

Now we have described the teams’ numerous efforts to maximise their monetary positive aspects, together with increasing their sufferer pool, benefiting from seasonal alternatives, and bettering their instruments and operations. Most notably, we’ve got detailed the Neanderthals’ latest strategy of concentrating on lodging reserving platforms, which additionally comes with extra subtle concentrating on.

It’s price noting that we’ve got communicated with a number of platforms focused by Telekopye all through our analysis; they’re totally conscious of those scams and confirmed they’ve employed a number of ways to fight them. Nevertheless, warning continues to be suggested for customers as a result of variety of the scams and their steady evolution.

For any inquiries about our analysis printed on WeLiveSecurity, please contact us at threatintel@eset.com. 

ESET Analysis gives non-public APT intelligence experiences and information feeds. For any inquiries about this service, go to the ESET Threat Intelligence web page.

IoCs

Recordsdata

Community

MITRE ATT&CK methods

This desk was constructed utilizing version 15 of the MITRE ATT&CK framework.