1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:00,990 In this lesson, 2 00:00:00,990 --> 00:00:03,693 we're going to talk about some fraud and scams. 3 00:00:04,590 --> 00:00:05,670 Frauds and scams 4 00:00:05,670 --> 00:00:08,430 are considered to be a form of social engineering. 5 00:00:08,430 --> 00:00:10,560 First, we have fraud. 6 00:00:10,560 --> 00:00:13,260 Fraud is a wrongful or criminal deception 7 00:00:13,260 --> 00:00:16,140 that is intended to result in financial or personal gain 8 00:00:16,140 --> 00:00:17,520 for the attacker. 9 00:00:17,520 --> 00:00:19,230 Basically, when an attacker attempts 10 00:00:19,230 --> 00:00:20,640 to commit fraud against you, 11 00:00:20,640 --> 00:00:24,030 they are trying to essentially steal from you in some way. 12 00:00:24,030 --> 00:00:27,300 The difference between fraud and regular theft though 13 00:00:27,300 --> 00:00:28,260 is that with fraud, 14 00:00:28,260 --> 00:00:31,590 you're going to be tricked into handing over your valuables 15 00:00:31,590 --> 00:00:33,840 such as your information or your money 16 00:00:33,840 --> 00:00:36,750 instead of the attacker breaking into your account 17 00:00:36,750 --> 00:00:39,150 and stealing it directly from you. 18 00:00:39,150 --> 00:00:40,740 This is why it is considered 19 00:00:40,740 --> 00:00:43,230 to be part of social engineering. 20 00:00:43,230 --> 00:00:45,300 One of the most common types of fraud 21 00:00:45,300 --> 00:00:46,290 that you will see online 22 00:00:46,290 --> 00:00:49,320 is known as identity fraud or identity theft. 23 00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:51,660 Identity fraud or identity theft 24 00:00:51,660 --> 00:00:53,610 involves the use by one person 25 00:00:53,610 --> 00:00:55,830 of another person's personal information 26 00:00:55,830 --> 00:00:59,580 without their authorization to commit a crime or deceive 27 00:00:59,580 --> 00:01:04,050 or defraud that other person or some other third party. 28 00:01:04,050 --> 00:01:07,440 These days, we commonly hear the terms identity fraud 29 00:01:07,440 --> 00:01:09,420 or identity theft. 30 00:01:09,420 --> 00:01:11,490 Criminals are routinely trying to steal 31 00:01:11,490 --> 00:01:14,220 your social security number, your date of birth, 32 00:01:14,220 --> 00:01:17,400 where you're born and other sensitive personal information 33 00:01:17,400 --> 00:01:19,680 that could be used to steal your identity. 34 00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:22,560 Now, when somebody commits identity theft, 35 00:01:22,560 --> 00:01:25,110 they're actually stealing another person's identity 36 00:01:25,110 --> 00:01:27,180 and using it as their own. 37 00:01:27,180 --> 00:01:29,670 Their goal is to impersonate their victim 38 00:01:29,670 --> 00:01:32,220 so that they can take their social security number 39 00:01:32,220 --> 00:01:34,380 and apply for a new credit card 40 00:01:34,380 --> 00:01:36,810 as if they were the victimized person. 41 00:01:36,810 --> 00:01:39,300 Often, you will hear the terms identity fraud 42 00:01:39,300 --> 00:01:42,030 and identity theft being used interchangeably 43 00:01:42,030 --> 00:01:44,610 even though there is a slight difference between them. 44 00:01:44,610 --> 00:01:45,507 With identity fraud, 45 00:01:45,507 --> 00:01:48,780 the attacker might just take the victim's credit card 46 00:01:48,780 --> 00:01:51,510 and then go make charges as if they were the victim. 47 00:01:51,510 --> 00:01:54,150 Technically, this is considered identity fraud 48 00:01:54,150 --> 00:01:55,980 and not identity theft. 49 00:01:55,980 --> 00:01:57,750 For it to be identity theft, 50 00:01:57,750 --> 00:02:00,660 the attacker will try to fully assume 51 00:02:00,660 --> 00:02:02,250 the identity of the victim. 52 00:02:02,250 --> 00:02:05,100 For example, if a person from outside of the United States 53 00:02:05,100 --> 00:02:08,310 stole your name, address, social security number 54 00:02:08,310 --> 00:02:09,780 and birthdate from you 55 00:02:09,780 --> 00:02:12,090 and then started a new job in the United States 56 00:02:12,090 --> 00:02:14,970 using your social security number and your identity, 57 00:02:14,970 --> 00:02:17,610 that would technically be identity theft 58 00:02:17,610 --> 00:02:21,060 and not identity fraud but these days, 59 00:02:21,060 --> 00:02:23,520 more people will use both terms interchangeably 60 00:02:23,520 --> 00:02:25,920 and more commonly, you'll hear identity theft used 61 00:02:25,920 --> 00:02:27,840 as the preferred combined term 62 00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:31,140 even though CompTIA prefers to use the term identity fraud 63 00:02:31,140 --> 00:02:34,500 to describe both of these types of attacks. 64 00:02:34,500 --> 00:02:37,440 Scams on the other hand are simply a fraudulent 65 00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:40,290 or deceptive act or operation. 66 00:02:40,290 --> 00:02:41,910 It is a really short definition 67 00:02:41,910 --> 00:02:44,250 for a really large and broad concept. 68 00:02:44,250 --> 00:02:45,930 Essentially, a scam occurs 69 00:02:45,930 --> 00:02:48,210 whenever someone tries to deceive their victim 70 00:02:48,210 --> 00:02:49,470 into doing something. 71 00:02:49,470 --> 00:02:51,210 Now, there are many different ways 72 00:02:51,210 --> 00:02:52,650 that scams can be conducted 73 00:02:52,650 --> 00:02:55,950 but for our purposes, let's just consider a common scam 74 00:02:55,950 --> 00:02:58,440 that is used against businesses all the time. 75 00:02:58,440 --> 00:03:01,860 This common scam is called the invoice scam. 76 00:03:01,860 --> 00:03:04,650 When we talk about an invoice scam, this is a scam 77 00:03:04,650 --> 00:03:07,980 in which a person is tricked into paying for a fake invoice 78 00:03:07,980 --> 00:03:11,160 for a product or service that they did not actually order. 79 00:03:11,160 --> 00:03:14,670 Now, there's many different variations of this invoice scam 80 00:03:14,670 --> 00:03:17,610 but typical one goes something like this. 81 00:03:17,610 --> 00:03:20,160 An employee at your company gets a phone call 82 00:03:20,160 --> 00:03:21,750 and when they answer the phone call, 83 00:03:21,750 --> 00:03:25,170 they are asked a few basic questions by the attacker. 84 00:03:25,170 --> 00:03:27,270 This attacker might ask you a few questions 85 00:03:27,270 --> 00:03:28,950 about type of printer you have 86 00:03:28,950 --> 00:03:31,410 or verify an order that you've placed 87 00:03:31,410 --> 00:03:33,150 for a certain type of toner. 88 00:03:33,150 --> 00:03:35,490 So they'll say, "oh, 89 00:03:35,490 --> 00:03:40,490 are you still using the HP LaserJet A330?" 90 00:03:40,500 --> 00:03:42,570 Now, they may or may not know 91 00:03:42,570 --> 00:03:44,430 what model the company is using 92 00:03:44,430 --> 00:03:48,030 but they're trying to set up a pretext during the call. 93 00:03:48,030 --> 00:03:50,640 The employee might agree if the attacker guessed right 94 00:03:50,640 --> 00:03:53,377 or may correct the attacker by saying something like, 95 00:03:53,377 --> 00:03:57,930 "oh no, we are currently using the Lexmark B612 printer" 96 00:03:57,930 --> 00:04:00,510 and then the attacker will acknowledge the change 97 00:04:00,510 --> 00:04:02,287 and react by saying something like, 98 00:04:02,287 --> 00:04:05,760 "oh, I'll make sure to get that fixed on the order. 99 00:04:05,760 --> 00:04:07,560 I have an order for two boxes of toner 100 00:04:07,560 --> 00:04:09,000 ready to ship out to your office. 101 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:10,830 It should be there by tomorrow, okay," 102 00:04:10,830 --> 00:04:14,400 and instinctively, the employee will say "yes" or "okay" 103 00:04:14,400 --> 00:04:18,240 and the attacker now has them recorded saying yes 104 00:04:18,240 --> 00:04:19,769 then a couple days later, 105 00:04:19,769 --> 00:04:22,350 the boxes of toner will arrive to the office. 106 00:04:22,350 --> 00:04:24,270 The employee thinks nothing is wrong 107 00:04:24,270 --> 00:04:26,130 since they took the call and verified the order 108 00:04:26,130 --> 00:04:27,690 and then the toner arrived 109 00:04:27,690 --> 00:04:30,720 but the company gets the bill for that toner 110 00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:34,350 and it will be a really large amount over the retail cost 111 00:04:34,350 --> 00:04:37,650 of the same toner from an office supply store. 112 00:04:37,650 --> 00:04:40,020 For example, you might be able to order that toner 113 00:04:40,020 --> 00:04:44,010 for $100 per box on Amazon or at Office Depot 114 00:04:44,010 --> 00:04:48,930 but you just received a bill for $950 for two boxes of toner 115 00:04:48,930 --> 00:04:51,390 that an attacker shipped to your office. 116 00:04:51,390 --> 00:04:54,210 Now, the reason this is called an invoice scam 117 00:04:54,210 --> 00:04:57,540 is because you have now received a legitimate invoice 118 00:04:57,540 --> 00:04:59,550 from this attacker for the toner 119 00:04:59,550 --> 00:05:03,360 and it will state that there was no refunds or no exchanges 120 00:05:03,360 --> 00:05:06,630 and they have a recording of your employee saying okay 121 00:05:06,630 --> 00:05:08,910 or yes to place that order. 122 00:05:08,910 --> 00:05:13,020 Now, this invoice scam doesn't just involve toner 123 00:05:13,020 --> 00:05:16,260 but it can be anything your office consumes regularly. 124 00:05:16,260 --> 00:05:18,210 So your staff needs to be trained 125 00:05:18,210 --> 00:05:21,483 on how to avoid falling victim to these types of attacks. 126 00:05:22,320 --> 00:05:25,260 Another more technical attack involving invoice scams 127 00:05:25,260 --> 00:05:27,840 occurs when an attacker sends an invoice 128 00:05:27,840 --> 00:05:29,790 to the billing department of your company 129 00:05:29,790 --> 00:05:33,240 as a PDF attachment to a spear-phish email. 130 00:05:33,240 --> 00:05:35,880 When the billing department's employee opens the invoice 131 00:05:35,880 --> 00:05:39,900 to see how much is due, the PDF uses embedded malicious code 132 00:05:39,900 --> 00:05:41,280 to inflict their computer 133 00:05:41,280 --> 00:05:43,320 and provide the attacker access to it 134 00:05:43,320 --> 00:05:45,960 using a remote access trojan. 135 00:05:45,960 --> 00:05:49,020 Again, if you receive an email from an untrusted 136 00:05:49,020 --> 00:05:51,810 or unknown sender, it should be analyzed 137 00:05:51,810 --> 00:05:55,170 before you open the attachments especially PDFs of invoices 138 00:05:55,170 --> 00:05:56,940 since they could contain malware 139 00:05:56,940 --> 00:05:59,910 that could affect your entire enterprise. 140 00:05:59,910 --> 00:06:03,267 So remember, when we talk about identity fraud 141 00:06:03,267 --> 00:06:05,280 and invoice scams, these are considered 142 00:06:05,280 --> 00:06:08,370 to be rather low tech social engineering techniques. 143 00:06:08,370 --> 00:06:10,140 For example, with identity fraud, 144 00:06:10,140 --> 00:06:12,180 an attacker might call you on the phone 145 00:06:12,180 --> 00:06:14,430 and get you to give the information 146 00:06:14,430 --> 00:06:16,770 just like your date of birth or your mother's maiden name 147 00:06:16,770 --> 00:06:19,950 or things like that to steal pieces of your identity 148 00:06:19,950 --> 00:06:23,520 but these attacks can be technical such as embedded malware 149 00:06:23,520 --> 00:06:26,163 inside of an invoice scam spear-phishing email.