Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeSECURITYInstagram* scammer calling himself 'Log-out king' terrorizes famous media personalities

Instagram* scammer calling himself ‘Log-out king’ terrorizes famous media personalities

-


Instagram* scammer calling himself ‘Log-out king’ terrorizes famous media personalities

The hacker deletes other people’s accounts and demands money for restoration, Meta* employees are powerless.

Recently, abroad is gaining fame and popularity Instagram– a fraudster known as “OBN Brandon” (hereinafter referred to as “Brandon”). An attacker terrorizes influential people on Instagram by deleting their accounts and demanding a ransom for restoration. The hacker has succeeded in his exploits thanks to Instagram’s “pretty crappy” support and an account complaint system that can be easily manipulated. Reportedly foreign sources turning his schemes, Brandon has already “welded on” several hundred thousand dollars.

However, Brandon is far from being the first to discover Instagram security scams. In 2021, an entire industry dedicated to blocking Instagram accounts has exploded in the digital underground. There is even a separate term for this – “Ban as a Service” or “Blocking as a Service” (BaaS).

BaaS offerings are often used by those who have money to “scatter” because this service is by no means cheap. Any wealthy person who harbors a grudge against an acquaintance, former partner or business competitor can permanently delete the victim’s profile by means of fraudsters.

Opportunities for this kind of fraud were allowed by Meta itself. She developed Instagram’s complaint system to protect users from harmful content on the platform (such as images of suicide and self-harm) by automatically removing such posts as quickly as possible after receiving a complaint.

However, scammers have learned to use this system to purposefully “denigrate” Instagram users. “We have been professionally banning accounts since 2020 and have the highest level of experience,” reads one of the scam ads.

These groups use several methods to remove accounts. One is to completely duplicate the target profile and then report the original account as a copycat. Some scammers even create scripts or bots to quickly report different accounts or report one particular account in bulk. On average, BaaS services are valued at $3,500-4,000 per profile.

Let’s get back to the main character of the news, OBN Brandon. This scammer is reportedly promoting software that he uses to make false claims. These complaints allege that a particular account has violated the Meta Community Guidelines, causing it to be automatically deleted. “Imitation” is also in the attacker’s repertoire. And sometimes Brandon even hacks the target account himself and posts content that is considered inappropriate to the terms of the platform. In other words, uses methods for every taste and color.

Brandon also offers the victims of such attacks the recovery of their deleted accounts. The scammer estimates the service at $5,000. However, the attacker usually does not stop, realizing that the victim is solvent. It cycles through the block/unblock cycle several times until the victim is completely penniless or simply refuses to pay.

In his attacks, Brandon often targets girls who use Instagram to drive people to their OnlyFans pages. Their accounts are considered vulnerable by default due to the posting of content very close to prohibited. Yes, and such individuals, apparently, have money, which is what the Instagram villain uses.

With his shameless and completely dishonest behavior, the hacker has earned himself a reputation as a real villain in the foreign media. This is what his victims usually say about him: “Once you get into Brandon’s field of vision, regardless of whether someone pays him or not, he has a personal investment in making your life miserable. He will try to extract as much money from you as he can.”

Meta claims that now the profiles of the scammer on all platforms of the company are blocked, but this absolutely does not mean that this can somehow prevent the hacker from continuing malicious deeds. The Internet scammer himself indicated in his Telegram channel that he is now done with BaaS services, but still takes on other types of Instagram fraud for a decent fee.

It is very strange that after so many years, Meta has not revised the requirements for blocking Instagram accounts. Careful moderation alone before making the final decision to block would be enough to save thousands of dollars to the victims of these scams. Well, Meta is doing business the way it wants to, and the Instagram platform continues to be used despite security issues and fraud risks. Therefore, somehow straining, apparently, in this situation, the company is not necessary.


* The Meta company and its products (Instagram and Facebook) are recognized as extremist, their activities are prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation.



Source link

www.securitylab.ru

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Most Popular