LONDON, Jan. 30, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Watching the latest film or Netflix series is becoming more accessible than ever, with $100 buying a complete suite of hacked accounts on the Dark Web, the latest Whizcase review has revealed.
The most abundantly available accounts are social media, with darknet markets full of hacked social media profiles retailing for just $6 per hacked account.
The report unearthed a flourishing marketplace for hacked entertainment service accounts:
- LinkedIn account: $45
- Facebook account: $14
- Instagram account: $12
- Discord account: $12
- Snapchat account: $12
- TikTok account: $6
You can find the full research here: https://whizcase.com/dark-web-social-media-prices/
Most of these are obtained from social engineering or phishing campaigns after hackers have compromised users’ email addresses used at registration.
Usually, these accounts are linked to their original owners’ payment processing solution, which the hackers often compromise. The original owners are locked out of these accounts, unable to unlink their card details from them. The only solution in these situations is to cancel the attached credit or debit card.
Whizcase revealed that for just $127, one could buy a hacked account from all major social media networks. The cheapest is Reddit at $6, rising to an Instagram account for $12. The most expensive social profile was LinkedIn at $45.
Hacked Gmail accounts are the most expensive items at $45 when it comes to communication tools. Considering that most businesses use Gmail daily, this is of little surprise. WhatsApp, Skype, and Telegram accounts range from $18 to $8.
This could allow cybercriminals to use these accounts to reset passwords their original owners used to sign up for various services. This could include financial and payment accounts as well.
The review says that many hackers use compromised accounts to run “sophisticated bot farms” for social media engagement manipulation. The advantage is that the manipulation campaigns are much harder to detect by social networks.
Buying social media engagement is also extremely cheap. For just $25, one could buy 1,000 Twitter retweets from seemingly legitimate accounts. Just $8 buys 1,000 Facebook likes on a page or a post.
It is possible to choose the country of origin for the Likes or retweets for a few extra bucks. This again shows one should be cautious when looking at popular or highly engaging things on social media. For the price of a hot dog, someone could make a profile look more popular than it is.
Whizcase said keeping social media and entertainment software accounts secure reduces social disruption, identity fraud, and outright theft. Otherwise, cybercriminals can use cybercrime exploits or social media campaigns to spread misinformation, scam or rob others of money or gaming tokens, and even steal their identity.
The Whizcase 2022 Review: https://whizcase.com/dark-web-social-media-prices/
About Whizcase
Whizcase is a library of guides and how-to tips about social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube. They research articles extensively and test solutions, and discuss issues and how-to tips for messaging apps like Telegram, Discord, and WhatsApp.
SOURCE Whizcase
