Anti Fraud Site Bobbear.co.uk Hit By A DDoS Attack
Unidentified cyber criminals have launched a denial of service attack on a UK-based anti-fraud website. The popular anti-fraud site Bobbear.co.uk is currently under a DDoS attack (distributed denial of service attack) that is continuing to hit the site with 3/4 million hits daily from hundreds of thousands of malware infected hosts mostly based in Asia and Eastern Europe, according to the site’s owner.
Bobbear.co.uk, which fights money laundering by warning about groups attempting to recruit mules, was left unreachable on Monday after coming under a distributed denial of service attack. Net security firm Sophos reports that the site was taken out by an assault from a botnet of compromised PCs that began late on Sunday. The timing of the assault coincides with the launch of Get Safe Online week in the UK.
According to site admin Bob Harrison, “Undoubtedly it is simply a response to the work I do in highlighting the mainly Russian money laundering and reshipping frauds that are currently plaguing the internet and wrecking the lives of innumerable victims.” Harrison has reported the attack to the Met’s computer crime unit and to Russian domains linked to the assault.
It’s not the first time the site has come under fire from cybercrooks. In October 2007 a spam campaign sought to discredit Bobbear by bombarding all and sundry with supposed begging requests. In reality the “Joe Job” junk mail messages, asking for donations through online payment service e-Gold, were nothing to do with site administrator Bob Harrison or Bobbear.co.uk. UK hosts Fasthosts unwittingly aided fraudsters by temporarily suspending the Bobbear.co.uk domain in response to complaints about the fraudulent emails.
Targeted DDoS attacks against anti-fraud and volunteer cybercrime fighting communities clearly indicate the impact these communities have on the revenue stream of scammers, and with Bobbear attracting such a high profile underground attention, the site is probably doing a very good job.
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