Criminals hit back with DDoS attack on anti-fraud site

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Popular anti-fraud website Bobbear.co.uk is currently a victim of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.

The attack looks to be targeted at Bobbear.co.uk because of its existence as an anti-money laundering fraud website.

The website kept a database of fake job adverts that have been used to recruit ‘money laundering mules’, who transfer money through their bank accounts, for a cut of the handled funds.

The sites advertising the jobs often use the names of real companies, and those who sign up can face big penalties if caught, as the job offers are always illegal and fraudulent. The final destination of the funds is usually an organised crime syndicate.

The DDoS attack commenced late last week, with administrator Bob Harrison claiming that the site was being hit with over half a million hits daily from malware hosts on Asia and Eastern Europe.

Sophos security expert Graham Cluley said it wasn’t the first time the site had been targeted, as last year hackers tried to smear Bobbear’s reputation by asking money to be donated to the site via e-Gold.

He said: “An attack like this is unfortunate news for the internet community, as it disrupts the dissemination of hundreds of pages of warnings about email frauds archived by Bob over the years.

“The only consolation that Bobbear can take is that they must be having an impact on the fraudsters if they are prepared to launch an attack like this.”

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