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Members of the security community are at risk. A new phishing campaign is taking advantage of the community’s growing interest in Flipper Zero to steal both their personal data and cryptocurrencies.
The tool gives pen-testers and hacking enthusiasts, and researchers the ability to tinker with a wide range of hardware. Portable and multi-functional, Flipper Zero supports infrared, Bluetooth, radio communications, RFID emulation, NFC, digital access key cloning, and more.
Its developers launched the device after an impressive Kickstarter campaign. Launched in 2020, the campaign surpassed its funding goal of $60,000 by 81 times, amassing almost $5 million in pledges.
The amusing and somewhat scary capabilities of the Flipper Zero displayed on social media helped generate more buzz for the product, however, the product was hindered by production issues, causing shortages that made it impossible to meet the still-growing demand for the product.
The project was put at risk and its production was jeopardized in September 2022, when the digital payment platform PayPal hold $1.3 million destined for ordering new production batches.
Fake Online Shops and Accounts Created
The immense interest in Flipper Zero determined threat actors to take advantage of the tool’s lack of availability by creating fake shops pretending to sell it.
According to BleepingComputer, cybersecurity researcher Dominic Alvieri spotted three fake Twitter accounts and two fake Flipper Zero stores so far.
Fake (left) Flipper Zero Twitter Account (Source: BleepingComputer)
The fake account is responding actively to fans of the product about its availability and other accounts’ tweets to make it look real. At first, the handle of the fake account looks to be the same as the handle of the official Flipper Zero account, however, at a closer look, we can observe that the fake account is using a capital “I” in its handle instead of a lower case “L”, which on Twitter looks the same.
As per BleepingComputer, there is still a fake Flipper Zero shop active on the Internet at the moment of writing this article. The shop is pretending to sell the device, the Wi-Fi module, and the case at the same price as the actual shop.
Fake Flipper Zero Online Shop (Source: BleepingComputer)
How the Phishing Campaign Works?
For the phishing attempt to succeed, buyers must reach the checkout of the fake website, where they are requested to enter their email addresses, shipping addresses, and full names.
The victims are then given the choice to pay using cryptocurrency (either Ethereum or Bitcoin).
Payment Method on the Fake Shop (Source: BleepingComputer)
Since no payments have been made to the specified wallet addresses, either the specific shop failed to deceive any security researchers or it used different wallets for each transaction. The threat actors have resorted to accepting cryptocurrency payments, including now Litecoin, using plisio.net invoicing. These invoices, however, fail to function and indicate that the order has expired.
We strongly recommend you to be on the lookout for such promotions and always order from the official store of the company.
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Cristian is a Content Editor & Creator at Heimdal®, where he developed a deep understanding of the digital threat landscape. His style resonates with both technical and non-technical readers, proof being in his skill of communicating cybersecurity norms effectively, in an easy-to-understand manner.
