According to Intel 471, forums are now being used to seek out English speakers, in particular, to bring together teams able to manage both the technical aspects and social engineering elements of a BEC scam.

If a scam is to succeed, the target employee must believe communication comes from a legitimate source -- and secondary language use, spelling mistakes, and grammatical issues could all be indicators that something isn't right, in the same way that run-of-the-mill spam often contains issues that alert recipients to attempted fraud.

"Actors like those we witnessed are searching for native English speakers since North American and European markets are the primary targets of such scams," the researchers say.

In addition, threat actors are also trying to recruit launderers to clean up the proceeds from BEC schemes, often achieved through cryptocurrency mixer and tumbler platforms. One advert spotted by the team asked for a service able to launder up to $250,000.

"The BEC footprint on underground forums is not as large as other types of cybercrime, likely since many of the operational elements of BEC use targeted social engineering tactics and fraudulent domains, which do not typically require technical services or products that the underground offers," Intel 471 says. "[...] Criminals will use the underground for all types of schemes, as long as those forums remain a hotbed of skills that can make criminals money."

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