Meta tracing the whereabouts of the man who created more than 39,000 phishing websites targeting Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp users

Necessary legal action was also taken by the company on Monday, including a lawsuit filed with US federal law enforcement agencies. According to Meta's preliminary investigation, the malicious activity of this hacker group has been deployed since 2019. In which, they have created more than 39,000 fake websites to copy the company's services, all of which are all designed to trick Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp users into providing their login information.

For the phishing operation to work, the hackers used a relay service called Ngrok. This service helps send internet traffic to fake login pages that hackers create, while hiding their identities and locations. Starting this past March, Meta worked with forwarding service Ngrok to suspend "thousands" of URLs associated with this phishing campaign.

Also in the complaint, Meta also mentioned copyright infringement. The hackers used the company's logo and trademarked name on fake login pages to deceive users.

Meta tracing the whereabouts of the man who created more than 39,000 phishing websites targeting Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp users Picture 1

In fact, this is not the first time legal actions have been taken by Meta to warn and prevent a phishing campaign. In 2019 and 2020, Meta also filed lawsuits against OnlineNIC and Namecheap, two domain name management companies that allowed cybersquatters to claim potentially confusing domains like instagrambusinesshelp.com and whatsappdownload.site.

Kareem Winters

Update 22 December 2021