Meta, the Facebook parent company, has filed a Joint lawsuit with digital banking company Chime against two Nigeria-based individuals, in a series of lawsuits filed to protect its users from phishing attacks which have been on the rise since 2020.

In the lawsuit, Meta said that the two defendants in this case were engaging in phishing attacks to deceive people and gain access to their online financial accounts.

The two Nigeria-based individuals were using Facebook and Instagram accounts to impersonate Chime and lure people to fake branded phishing websites with the aim of obtaining their Chime account login information and withdrawing funds.

Meta, which has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, said the defendants used a network of computers to control more than 800 impersonating Instagram accounts and five Facebook accounts, in order to conceal their activity and evade technical enforcement measures.

For those unaware, Phishing attacks are the practice of sending fraudulent communications that appear to come from a trustworthy source. It is usually done through email. The goal is to steal sensitive data like credit card and login information or install malware on the victim’s machine.

Meta’s director of platform enforcement and litigation Jessica Romero stated in a blog post that “Impersonation scams are a serious challenge, and this action represents a major step forward in cross-industry collaboration against this abuse.”

This is the first joint complaint between Meta and a financial services company. The Fintech Company Chime was launched by former Visa Inc (V.N) executive Chris Britt and Comcast Corp alumnus Ryan King in 2012.

Meta also stated that it has taken several previous actions against the defendants since June 2020 for violating its terms including blocking impersonating domains on its platforms, sending cease and desist letters, and disabling their accounts.

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(Source)

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Lately, phishing attacks have been on the rise and have vastly affected Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp users. In an attempt to stop ongoing phishing attacks, Meta, formerly known as Facebook, filed a federal lawsuit in California court.

Meta has stated that the attackers were trying to steal the login credentials of various users of its multiple platforms by creating fake login pages that looked like Meta’s social media platforms to obtain Meta’s users’ login credentials. The goal was to deceive the users into entering their credentials, like usernames and passwords.

For those unaware, Phishing attacks are the practice of sending fraudulent communications that appear to come from a trustworthy source. It is usually done through email. The goal is to steal sensitive data like credit card and login information or install malware on the victim’s machine.

Jessica Romero, Meta’s director of platform and litigation, said that “Reports of phishing attacks have been on the rise across the industry, and we are taking this action to uncover the identities of the people behind the attack and stop their harmful conduct.”

Meta made a blog post stating that the phishing scam included more than 39,000 fake websites and masked their identity by using a relay service that redirected the internet traffic to their phishing pages while simultaneously concealing their actual location and identities. The relay service also masked the online hosting providers of the perpetrators.

According to the social media giant, phishing attacks have increased since March 2021, and Meta has suspended thousands of URLs to such phishing sites. Although the culprits are yet to be identified, the lawsuit is another step in its actions to protect people’s safety and privacy. The filed lawsuit by Meta shows the company’s position against those trying to abuse its platforms.

In the blog post, meta reassured that they would continue to fight the phishing attacks that try to deceive its users and share the phishing sites with other platforms so that they can block the attackers as well.

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