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I've been on voice chat with her throughout the day trying to help her fix the problem. So I've seen it happen in real time, from the suspicious login in Nigeri

by k4runa 5y ago

I've been on voice chat with her throughout the day trying to help her fix the problem. So I've seen it happen in real time, from the suspicious login in Nigeria to the deep-fake video that happened later.

FDSGSG 5y ago
It's so very hard to believe that it would be the notoriously unsophisticated Nigerians¹ pulling off high-end deepfakes. These guys weren't smart enough to use a proxy, but were supposedly smart enough to produce a good deepfake. If this really happened, there must be some easy to use public tool they used. I'd really love to see the video. ¹ There's no way anyone else would log into a stolen account from a Nigerian IP.
- throwaway29303 5y ago
  Maybe this is related https://therecord.media/how-the-pandemic-pulled-nigerian-university-students-into-cybercrime/ https://therecord.media/how-the-pandemic-pulled-nigerian-uni...
- m00x 5y ago
  Why would Nigerians be unsophisticated? Are you assuming someone from Nigeria wouldn't be smart enough to make deepfakes?
  - dylan604 5y ago
    Right? Their prince was the first email scam of note, and probably one of the longest running ones at that. Also, you know VPN/VoIP numbers exist to help mask the identity/location of scammers. Just in case some of that might have slipped the mind of some peeps.
    - FDSGSG 5y ago
      Nobody would choose to use a Nigerian VPN while logging into stolen accounts. This is really obvious. > Their prince was the first email scam of note, and probably one of the longest running ones at that. And all of the Nigerian prince spammers are incredibly unsophisticated. Anyone in the industry can tell you this, you can just look at the manner in which they send their emails.
      - dylan604 5y ago
        Nobody you say? Sounds like the perfect cover then. Or, you know, for the lulz.
        FDSGSG 5y ago
        Almost anything is possible, but this is still by far the least likely explanation. Why needlessly alert the victim when you could just choose a proxy in their city? >Sounds like the perfect cover then How would that even work? It's not like this would provide any kind of an advantage. In what kind of a threat model could this possibly be beneficial?
  - FDSGSG 5y ago
    I think you can ask anyone working with threat intel about this. Nigeria has the least sophisticated cybercriminals in the world, they're very prolific but the tooling they use is hilariously bad. I'm sure there are some exceptions, but those would probably be smart enough to conceal where they came from. This isn't really surprising. Obviously Nigerian cybercriminals will be less sophisticated than the Russians for example, just look at their schools!
- k4runa 5y ago
  The phone number linked to the instagram account is also a +234 number now which is Nigerian based.
- gramie 5y ago
  I don't think that the Nigerian scammers are necessarily unsophisticated. Their scam emails intentionally contain enough red flags that any reasonably intelligent person will recognize the scam and not reply. This way, the only replies they get are from people who are extremely gullible and/or desperate. It allows the scammers to avoid wasting time on targets that have a low probability of success. That said, there are certainly plenty of stories about Nigerian scammers who are themselves not very bright or perceptive (is the 401Eater website still up and running?).
  - pixelgeek 5y ago
    > I don't think that the Nigerian scammers are necessarily unsophisticated. Their scam emails intentionally contain enough red flags that any reasonably intelligent person will recognize the scam and not reply. It is actually deliberate. It has been part of scams like that for decades https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/microsoft/9346371/Nigerian-scam-emails-deliberately-implausible.html https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/microsoft/9346371/Nig... It used to be seen in scams sent via the post as well.
  - FDSGSG 5y ago
    >I don't think that the Nigerian scammers are necessarily unsophisticated. Their scam emails intentionally contain enough red flags that any reasonably intelligent person will recognize the scam and not reply. The "nigerian scams" are extremely unprofitable compared to even mildly sophisticated scams like BEC or basic craigslist scams. I think it's safe to say that they're unsophisticated. >That said, there are certainly plenty of stories about Nigerian scammers who are themselves not very bright or perceptive (is the 401Eater website still up and running?). Yeah, because the actually intelligent ones are generally running very different scams.

by k4runa 5y ago

FDSGSG 5y ago

It's so very hard to believe that it would be the notoriously unsophisticated Nigerians¹ pulling off high-end deepfakes. These guys weren't smart enough to use a proxy, but were supposedly smart enough to produce a good deepfake. If this really happened, there must be some easy to use public tool they used. I'd really love to see the video. ¹ There's no way anyone else would log into a stolen account from a Nigerian IP.

throwaway29303 5y ago
Maybe this is related https://therecord.media/how-the-pandemic-pulled-nigerian-university-students-into-cybercrime/ https://therecord.media/how-the-pandemic-pulled-nigerian-uni...
m00x 5y ago
Why would Nigerians be unsophisticated? Are you assuming someone from Nigeria wouldn't be smart enough to make deepfakes?
- dylan604 5y ago
  Right? Their prince was the first email scam of note, and probably one of the longest running ones at that. Also, you know VPN/VoIP numbers exist to help mask the identity/location of scammers. Just in case some of that might have slipped the mind of some peeps.
  - FDSGSG 5y ago
    Nobody would choose to use a Nigerian VPN while logging into stolen accounts. This is really obvious. > Their prince was the first email scam of note, and probably one of the longest running ones at that. And all of the Nigerian prince spammers are incredibly unsophisticated. Anyone in the industry can tell you this, you can just look at the manner in which they send their emails.
    - dylan604 5y ago
      Nobody you say? Sounds like the perfect cover then. Or, you know, for the lulz.
      - FDSGSG 5y ago
        Almost anything is possible, but this is still by far the least likely explanation. Why needlessly alert the victim when you could just choose a proxy in their city? >Sounds like the perfect cover then How would that even work? It's not like this would provide any kind of an advantage. In what kind of a threat model could this possibly be beneficial?
- FDSGSG 5y ago
  I think you can ask anyone working with threat intel about this. Nigeria has the least sophisticated cybercriminals in the world, they're very prolific but the tooling they use is hilariously bad. I'm sure there are some exceptions, but those would probably be smart enough to conceal where they came from. This isn't really surprising. Obviously Nigerian cybercriminals will be less sophisticated than the Russians for example, just look at their schools!
k4runa 5y ago
The phone number linked to the instagram account is also a +234 number now which is Nigerian based.
gramie 5y ago
I don't think that the Nigerian scammers are necessarily unsophisticated. Their scam emails intentionally contain enough red flags that any reasonably intelligent person will recognize the scam and not reply. This way, the only replies they get are from people who are extremely gullible and/or desperate. It allows the scammers to avoid wasting time on targets that have a low probability of success. That said, there are certainly plenty of stories about Nigerian scammers who are themselves not very bright or perceptive (is the 401Eater website still up and running?).
- pixelgeek 5y ago
  > I don't think that the Nigerian scammers are necessarily unsophisticated. Their scam emails intentionally contain enough red flags that any reasonably intelligent person will recognize the scam and not reply. It is actually deliberate. It has been part of scams like that for decades https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/microsoft/9346371/Nigerian-scam-emails-deliberately-implausible.html https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/microsoft/9346371/Nig... It used to be seen in scams sent via the post as well.
- FDSGSG 5y ago
  >I don't think that the Nigerian scammers are necessarily unsophisticated. Their scam emails intentionally contain enough red flags that any reasonably intelligent person will recognize the scam and not reply. The "nigerian scams" are extremely unprofitable compared to even mildly sophisticated scams like BEC or basic craigslist scams. I think it's safe to say that they're unsophisticated. >That said, there are certainly plenty of stories about Nigerian scammers who are themselves not very bright or perceptive (is the 401Eater website still up and running?). Yeah, because the actually intelligent ones are generally running very different scams.