Thread by @Sirlupinwatson

Recently we've seen a massive shift in impersonation (user-business, website) on almost each application infra (, Indeed, LinkedIn, etc)

After a quick analysis;
- Alberta: in a rayon of 100m in residential area, we found 100+ business, all fake
/2 Jobbank.gc.ca

Pictured above:
- Fake child daycare and auto repair shop location in Calgary, Alberta.

No child is kept at this loation, nor the review, are all fake.
Need auto repair services? Never existed...

643 p2p review on Google Map? -> Bogus review, all fake... (There might be some legitimate) But most are AI-generated comments, after looking carefully, part of a similar fraud ring in Alberta.

/3

Their modus:

They find real registered business, renew their domain name (change some parameters) or simply post on their behalf with a new number, hack their Linkedin (of craft them the previous year) and start posting.

/4

The reach:
- They post job ads, request LMIA to the government saying there isn't enough applicant (mostly construction job)
- Quick search + filter in a certain area give us 86 job ads in for supervisor or foreman, all fake compagny.

/5

To see if a compagny might be at risk, you can check those 4 for a Ltd or a Federal inc with name or BN ;
- opengovca.com (Any Can)
- albertacorporations.com (Alberta)
- ised-isde.canada.ca/cbr-rec/en/sea… (Can)
- ised-isde.canada.ca/cc/lgcy/fdrlCr…

/6

The issue and persistance;

- Complete network of fake org, business, address
- Calling them sucessfully resulted in contradictory statement, not knowing their own BN, or email, since they used many for those scam, they easily get lost in their lies.

/7

To look for;

- Review their BN, Inc. or Ltd. registration including their details.
- Call them and ask their licence or BN, even better, knock on their door if you are local given the address they include.
- Whois + Nslookup for their domain name + mail
- GG map review

/8

Quick tip to see if a review is legitimate or not;
- Check out the latest comments + the oldest one, you should see a difference if the compagny has been highjacked
- Most will include AI-gen image + long paragraph, also AI-gen (easy)

- MarkitRoofit - Fake
- Grace Show - Fake

Would you ever visit a child daycare, then saying you didn't "sign up" for a "transportation arrangements", but leave a 5 star review saying children are able to explore the main floor, highly recomending it...

If you care about children, or security in general, this is nuts...

On top of that, the entire system is being attacked;
- P2P is not reliable since each are fake local guide or bogus bot account
- BBB (Better business bureau) list them as A-tier most of the time based on their review.
- They upvote each other, downvote whoever they target

This isn't a simple fraud pattern;
- Trade fraud
- LMIA fraud
- Data harvesting fraud
- Money laundering fraud
- Identity theft fraud

Be carefull at "where" and to "who" you send your resume or informations...

@threadreaderapp rollup this!