14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this month, experts from Symantec have uncovered a phishing website replicating a popular social media network.
The crooks tricked users into handing over their credentials by luring them with an alleged video of a prisoner being tortured in a Syrian prison.
After being warned that the video, entitled “Liberal torture in the State Security Branch Khatib,” contained scenes of violence, victims were asked to enter their usernames and passwords in order to gain access to the footage.
The login credentials were presumably needed so that the user could prove that he/she was over 18.
The phishing site was hosted on a compromised domain from the United Arab Emirates and it was written in Arabic.
This case shows that cybercriminals can successfully rely on hot topics anywhere in the world to carry out their malicious goals.