Wuffy toy dog scam network traced to Kremlin
Original title: Wuffy the Toy Dog and the Money Trail to Kremlin
Mastercard investigation links 250+ Wuffy scam sites to $50 million annual fraud and ransomware money trails.
A network of scam websites selling fake AI toy dogs like Wuffy has been identified through Mastercard's analysis. Small charges feed a larger fraud operation. Ransomware payments are traced to Russian socialite Ekaterina Zhdanova and state-linked networks.
Unconfirmed: Exact number of sites and total volume claimed by Mastercard analysis
- Estimated $50 million a year in transactions from 250+ sites
- Ransomware payments linked to Garantex, UK drug gangs, and Russian spy funding
- Scammers exploit banks eating the loss from small charges
Impact: unauthorized charges and fraud
- 1.Verify vendors independently
- 2.Report suspicious charges
- 3.Avoid too-good-to-be-true deals
- Threat actors
- Ekaterina Zhdanova
- Organizations
- MastercardNCACNA Financial
From the original article
9 min read at huntress.comA $30 AI toy dog led Mastercard to 250+ scam sites. See how small charges and ransomware payouts follow the same money trail, and how to cut it off.
huntress.com
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