Have you ever wondered what the worldwide profile of cyber-criminals is ? The news is awash with 419 scams from Nigeria but Nigerians are not the most active criminals. They are not even very good. Nowadays, they concentrate on scamming widows and gullible retirees as well as people seeking love on the internet. The real criminals are elsewhere. This article examines the profile of tech fraudsters around the world.


First, let’s start with the underground in different parts of the world. It should be noted that, before the underground existed, there never existed such an accessible platform for crime, which is one of the reasons cyber-crime is now so widespread. Understanding the behavior of cyber-criminals from different parts of the world can give some interesting insight into the trends observed in each underground market.

Russian Cyber Criminals

Russian cyber-criminals are considered the most sophisticated in the world. The majority of the most sophisticated cyberattacks, tools and methods have originated from Russia. The Russians are also responsible for the development of some of the most advanced Trojan Horses and botnets, enabling them to conduct criminal operations that are massive both in terms of scope and revenues. With this, it’s no wonder Russians have their own underground forums and circles, which are usually more closed-off to newcomers than their English-language counterparts. Finally, Russians typically target victims from all over the world, except for other Russians. Often, this gives them some immunity from getting arrested.

Brazilian Cyber Criminals

Brazil is the second biggest originator of malware after Russia. Brazilian cybercriminals are also associated with some of the more sophisticated attacks we’ve seen, such as exploiting a vulnerability that enabled them to clone Chip-and-PIN cards. Unlike their Russian counterparts, Brazilian cyber-criminals tend to focus on Brazilian victims, typically targeting local banks. While Russians have their own circles, they are also quite active in English-speaking forums. Brazilians, however, rarely participate in underground circles that are not local.

German Cyber Criminals

Much like Brazilian cyber-criminals, German cyber-criminals target mostly German banks and victims. They have their own German-speaking circles that contain a lot of localized content such as how to use Packstations (automated machines that can receive items ordered online) for fraudulent use.


Nigerian / Ghanaian Cyber Criminals

Nigerians have a bad reputation in the underground. Many fraudsters label them as “rippers,” or fraudsters who rip off other fraudsters, and are unwilling to deal with them. That, of course, is a generalization; there are many Nigerians who are quite capable cyber-criminals, and they use their control over the English language to perform various types of scams across the Internet. However,most Nigerians aren’t very sophisticated scammers. They focus on email-based scams rather than operating large botnets and malware. It’s worth noting that many of cyber-criminals who are labeled as Nigerians by other fraudsters are, in fact, from the neighboring country of Ghana.

This post is part of a longer article lifted from one on the worldwide underground economy. To read the complete article, go here:
https://getlogdog.com/blogdog/the-global-ever-changing-underground-economy/