SMS Bandits, including the man detained, got access to account credentials from numerous popular web pages, offered on dark web platforms that they controlled by sending fake SMSs by millions. Among other pseudonyms, Bamit9, Gmuni, and Uncle Munis are also used by the fraudulent service providers on the dark web. For mass transmission of texts intended to collect account credentials on various common websites and to steal personal and financial information, SMS bandits supplied an SMS phishing service for the mass transmission of text messages.
Angus, a researcher at the Scylla Intel, a cyber intelligence firm, stated that the SMS Bandits sent phish lures that always made it possible to detect a fake message uncommonly, well done, and clean of syntax or orthographer's errors. “Just by virtue of these guys being native English speakers, the quality of their phishing kits and lures were considerably better than most,” Angus further added.
According to Scylla Intel, the SMS Bandits made a variety of organizational security errors that made it relatively easy to figure out who they are in actuality. Scylla Intel further collected evidence against the SMS Bandits' and figured out that the SMS Bandits used the email addresses and passwords stolen from its services to validate the credentials.
According to the sources, the SMS Bandits are also related to a dark web criminal program named, “OTP Agency”, a service that is designed to intercept the one- time- password which is required while logging into various websites. The modus operandi involves the customer entering the target’s phone number and name, and then the OTP Agency initiating an automated phone call to the target that alerts them about unauthorized activity on their account.
SMS Bandits has also offered its patented "bulletproof hosting," which has been marketed as a "freedom of communications" portal, where clients can "host any content without restrictions." The content inevitably shapes the sites on which users of different web platforms are entitled to phish credentials.
According to a new survey, the amount of SMS phishing grew by over 328% in 2020. As a consequence of this, we do not see any feeling of terror among the fraudsters.