Facebook Home to 74 Black Market Groups

Researchers at Cisco Talos detected an excess of 70 Facebook groups that have been selling black-market cyber-fraud services, some of which have managed to remain on Facebook for up to eight years, according to a Talos Intelligence blog post. For several months, researchers have been investigating online criminal flea markets on Facebook, discovering a collective list of 74 groups. Members of the groups offer a wide range of services described as “shady (at best) and illegal (at worst) activities,” according to the research. Though now removed, the groups were selling, buying or trading all types of illegal services, including "stolen bank/credit card information, the theft and sale of account credentials from a variety of sites, and email spamming tools and services. In total, these groups had approximately 385,000 members.” Credit cards were often sold with CVV numbers, as well as some of the victim’s additional identification documentation.