Cyberscammers now spoofing LinkedIn accounts

Cyberscammers have started using professional networking service LinkedIn to impersonate real executives to fool prospective victims, a security vendor warned Thursday.

 

Bitdefender said the scam message may appear to be a legitimate business proposal from a bank manager seemingly backed by "credentials, work experience and peers."

 

"The scam message is crafted generically, as it lays the ground for the con: a business proposal for people who have full control of the company, including the possibility to initiate money transfers," it said in a blog post.

 

However, as in previous "Nigerian 419" scams, the contact information is an e-mail address not connected with the bank the executive supposedly works with.

 

In most cases, the address is a disposable account set up with Yahoo, it said.

 

With the finding, Bitdefender advised users against quickly jumping into a business opportunity.

 

"If the conversation involves financial or personal information, call the company and ask for the person to discuss the matter via phone, or schedule a face-to-face meeting," it said.

 

Bitdefender also said the attacker not only impersonated the legitimate bank executive on LinkedIn - he even set up a fake Facebook profile with the same credentials.

 

But a giveaway that the Facebook account was fake was that the photo had the watermark “AP Photo.”

 

"Shortly after receiving the scammy message, we tried to engage the attacker and play his game, but LinkedIn rapidly pulled the profile (and his message history) off," Bitdefender said. — TJD, GMA News