Call Center Fraud | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Researchers have issued a warning about an emerging and advanced form of voice phishing ( vishing ) known as " Letscall ." This technique is currently targeting individuals in South Korea. The criminals behind "Letscall" employ a multi-step attack to deceive victims into downloading malicious apps from a counterfeit Google Play Store website. Once the malicious software is installed, it redirects incoming calls to a call center under the control of the criminals. Trained operators posing as bank employees then extract sensitive information from unsuspecting victims. To facilitate the routing of voice traffic, "Letscall" utilizes cutting-edge technologies such as voice over IP (VOIP) and WebRTC. It also makes use of Session Traversal Utilities for NAT (STUN) and Traversal Using Relays around NAT (TURN) protocols, including Google STUN servers, to ensure high-quality phone or video calls and bypass NAT and firewall restrictions. The "Letscall...

A number of India-based call centers and their directors have been indicted for their alleged role in placing tens of millions of scam calls aimed at defrauding thousands of American consumers. The indictment charged Manu Chawla, Sushil Sachdeva, Nitin Kumar Wadwani, Swarndeep Singh, Dinesh Manohar Sachdev, Gaje Singh Rathore, Sanket Modi, Rajiv Solanki and their respective call centers for conspiring with previously indicted VoIP provider E Sampark and its director, Guarav Gupta, to forward the calls to U.S. citizens. "Criminal India-based call centers defraud U.S. residents, including the elderly, by misleading victims over the telephone utilizing scams such as Social Security and IRS impersonation as well as loan fraud," the U.S. Justice Department  said  in a release. According to the  November 2020 indictment  issued against E Sampark and Gupta, the calls from India-based phone scammers led to reported losses of over $20 million from May 2015 to June 2020, w...

Vulnerability Management (VM) has long been a cornerstone of organizational cybersecurity. Nearly as old as the discipline of cybersecurity itself, it aims to help organizations identify and address potential security issues before they become serious problems. Yet, in recent years, the limitations of this approach have become increasingly evident.  At its core, Vulnerability Management processes remain essential for identifying and addressing weaknesses. But as time marches on and attack avenues evolve, this approach is beginning to show its age. In a recent report, How to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management (Gartner, How to Grow Vulnerability Management Into Exposure Management, 8 November 2024, Mitchell Schneider Et Al.), we believe Gartner® addresses this point precisely and demonstrates how organizations can – and must – shift from a vulnerability-centric strategy to a broader Exposure Management (EM) framework. We feel it's more than a worthwhile read an...

An Indian national on Monday was  sentenced to 20 years in prison  in the Southern District of Texas for operating and funding India-based call centers that defrauded US victims out of millions of dollars between 2013 and 2016. Hitesh Madhubhai Patel (aka Hitesh Hinglaj), who hails from the city of Ahmedabad, India, was sentenced in connection with charges of fraud and money laundering. He was also ordered to pay restitution of $8,970,396 to identified victims of his crimes. Earlier this January, Patel  pleaded guilty  to wire fraud conspiracy and general conspiracy to commit identification fraud, access device fraud, money laundering, and impersonation of a federal officer or employee. "The defendant defrauded vulnerable US victims out of tens of millions of dollars by spearheading a conspiracy whose members boldly impersonated federal government officials and preyed on victims' fears of adverse government action," said Acting Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt...