Meet The Underground Business of OG-Username Account Takeover Attacks
“Car.” “Chris.” “Lizard.” Online accounts with one-word names like these are known as “OG usernames,” and they’re prime targets for bad actors who steal, buy and sell access on a lucrative black market. OG stands for “original gangster,” a reference to the fact that many of these usernames are held by early adopters of the apps and platforms in question. A recent episode of the Reply All podcast followed a Snapchat user named Lizzie whose OG username, “Lizard,” was stolen …
Online fraud can be pretty insidious, especially if you think you’re doing everything right. But fraud is becoming more sophisticated and the bad guys know technology. Many of them use advanced software that can reduce days of drudgery to mere hours of research and collecting insecure private information for their own use. First and foremost: think and verify before giving out any personal information. Be fastidious when asked for your information and always request person’s credentials. Be wary of suspicious 
Few would disagree that 2020 has brought its challenges – and I would like to know who those few are. NuData analysts closely monitor our data for online patterns and trends, and found some compelling changes over the first six months of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has driven the fastest transition of customers moving to online transactions. As a result, we’ve seen an unprecedented surge in creativity of credential-stealing scams. Companies adapting their business models to enhance online 
It is no secret that account takeover has reinvented itself several times in the last decade to become more effectively automated while harder to differentiate from real users. Today, we are witnessing the ultimate twist: a backward evolution to once again use humans as part of automated attacks. Just as financial security managers become more innovative to protect their businesses, so do fraudsters. The NuData-sponsored Aite report takes a peek at how account takeover (ATO) has evolved into a 
Online fraud isn’t just the work of some teens in their parents’ basements. Most hackers are well-trained professionals employed by a specialized industry. Learning how these workers think is the most effective way to get ahead of their plots. As in any industry, specialization is queen. Cyberattacks owe much of their success rates to this specialization where every step to defraud individuals is highly developed. Like any business, the ultimate goal is to make money and leverage existing work to