Fake Google Security Team ad says 'no script reading' in voice phishing

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Yes, criminals have job listings too. A Telegram user recruiting callers to work in an apparent Google Security Team voice-phishing scam told applicants that they weren’t allowed to read from scripts – in the same ad that also included the exact script they had to read during these scam calls.

This and other true-crime tales of criminals making fools of themselves appear in the latest installment of the Trellix Advanced Research Center’s Dark Web Roast, which uses memes and mockery to troll criminals on the dark web.

It also acknowledges: “While these incidents are genuinely amusing, they represent real criminal activities causing significant harm.”

The ad then proceeded to print the exact script the callers would read: “Good afternoon, this is [name] reaching you on behalf of the Google Account Security Team on a recorded line. Am I speaking with Larry Boyles?”

The Trellix threat-intel analysts note that the “‘recorded line’ flourish is a nice touch, because nothing says legitimacy like a fraudster cosplaying compliance theatre. The pretexting playbook is depressingly effective, but the recruiter’s QA process is roughly as robust as the fake Google team it impersonates.”

The Register previously spoke with Trellix VP of threat intelligence strategy John Fokker the Dark Web Roast, and he said the idea came from a desire to take an "almost psyops" approach to covering the criminal underground. "We don't want to glorify them, what's the opposite we can do? We're going to roast them," Fokker told us during a conversation at RSAC.

"I'm trying to spark a debate, or a healthy conversation, what we can do as an industry," he said. "Everybody's glorifying threat actors, and that's not helping our customers or organizations. These are just individuals, they just use computers, and they just want to steal your data and make money. They're not mythical. They don't have superpowers."

Plus, according to Google, voice phishing surged last year to become the second most common method used by cybercriminals to gain initial access to their victims' IT estate – and the No. 1 tactic used when breaking into cloud environments.

So when these criminals do dumb things , we’re happy to see Fokker’s team call them out.®

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