Cyber-criminals are doing a roaring trade in “how-to” fraud guides for their fellow scammers, although many are out-of-date and incomplete, according to new dark web research from Terbium Labs.
The cyber-intelligence firm analyzed nearly 30,000 of these guides to compile its latest report, Fraud Guides 101: Dark Web Lessons on How to Defraud Companies and Exploit Data.
These online documents typically include instructions on specific fraud capabilities such as account takeover, phishing, cashing out, doxing, synthetic fraud, account creation and so on.
They could feature instructions, personal notes from the author on their experiences of what works and what doesn’t, social engineering and technical advice, and more.
However, while it appears to be an ominously thriving industry, it’s unclear exactly how much value these guides are offering to the typical fraudster.
According to Terbium Labs, over a quarter (26%) of guides are more than a decade old, and there are more out there from 2010 than 2017 and 2018 combined.