According to BleepingComputer* A widespread brand impersonation campaign targeting over a hundred popular apparel, footwear, and clothing brands has been underway since June 2022, tricking people into entering their account credentials and financial information on fake websites.
The brands impersonated by the phony sites include Nike, Puma, Asics, Vans, Adidas, Columbia, Superdry Converse, Casio, Timberland, Salomon, Crocs, Sketchers, The North Face, UGG, Guess, Caterpillar, New Balance, Fila, Doc Martens, Reebok, Tommy Hilfiger, and others.
According to Bolster’s threat research team, who discovered the campaign, it relies on at least 3,000 domains and roughly 6,000 sites, including inactive ones. Bolster reports that the campaign had a significant activity spike between January and February 2023, adding 300 new fake sites monthly.
The domain names follow a pattern of using the brand name together with a city or country, followed by a generic TLD such as “.com.” The researchers say that the campaign operated over ten fake websites for Nike, Puma, and Clarks, featuring a design very similar to the official sites of the brands.
Brand impersonation casts an impressive net far and wide in the hope of being caught up in a believable narrative that gains quick and simple manipulation and misdirection. Phishing attacks will always continue to follow brands that are well known as they often come with a higher chance of the victim owning one of the chosen accounts or at least having an association with the company. Well known brands around the world are often more easily cloned in such campaigns. Stealing data remains big business for cybercriminals but such phishing emails usually still possess clues which can hopefully raise suspicions.
Double checking the sender address and any links before taking any action will often pay dividends in keeping accounts and devices secure. Websites can be aged by researching them online which is important as new, younger sites are usually a clear sign that you should steer clear.Many fake websites apply a scheme of faking brand pages of local branches, such as in nameofthevendor-italia.com or similar. When shopping for clothes, shoes and apparel better check the vendor websites directly without any add-ons – as in nameofthevendor.com – and they’ll automatically redirect you to your local offerings. When looking for special offers, check the well-known third-party retail stores.
*ESET does not bear any responsibility for the accuracy of this information.
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